Flying Free
by Cat at the Dog Show
Summary: No I.D., no homes, and according to the government, they don't exist. Can this rag-tag team of mutant kids shut down the biggest mad science lab in the world? Read and find out! Sequel to my other story Taking Flight.
1. Once Again

**Disclaimer: Let me ask you something. If I owned Maximum Ride, would I be writing this story? No, I would be out enjoying the profit from my wildly popular novel. And since my kitchen table isn't covered in movie deals, pay checks, and the rough draft of my latest book, no I guess I don't own Maximum Ride. **

**Author's note: Well, here it is! The first chapter. It's kinda short, but oh well. Also, I won't be able to update this story as ofter, but I'll try to at least once or twice a week, maybe more. Now on with the story!**

* * *

Rain poured down on them as they flew through the sky; their pursuers not far behind. They glanced at each other, as a silent message past between them. The two nodded in agreement and in unison, they flew to the ground. Neither even so much as slowed as they hit the ground at full speed and kept running.

Once hidden by the trees, the teens' pursuers could no longer follow them from the sky. But that didn't end the chase. The helicopter that was following them simply opened its door, releasing all of its passengers; execpt for the pilot of course.

The chase continued through the pouring rain and splashing mud. Though it wasn't long before the pursuers lost sight of their prey. After half an hour of searching, the pursuers finally gave up and went back to their helicopter in defeat.

The two teens watched their pursuers leave from high up in a tree. A feeling of relieve washed over them as they watch the helicopter flew off. Once again, Sarah and Danny had gotten away.


	2. A day in the Life

**Author's note: Well, I decided to be nice and give you another chapter, since the first one was so short and all. **

Sarah was awoken by a quiet rustling sound. She looked around in the semi-darkness of the early morning. Not but a couple feet away, she saw a raccoon rummaging through her backpack.

The mischievous creature stopped and looked up the second Sarah moved. It quickly dropped whatever it was messing with and scurried up a tree. Sarah watch the raccoon climb into a hole in the tree trunk and disappear.

Tiredly, Sarah stood and brushed herself off while looking around for Danny. She spotted him leaning against a tree asleep; he was supposed to be keeping watch.

Sarah picked up the scatted contents of her backpack and repacked them. She then picked up a pinecone and tossed it at the sleeping Danny.

The boy instantly awoke as the pinecone made contact with his head. He looked around and saw Sarah smirking at him a couple feet away.

"What was that for?" Danny asked as he stood up, brushing the dirt and leaves off of him.

"For sleeping on the job," Sarah answered lightly, "You know, you could have woken me up. I could have taken you watch shift."

"This was the first time you've actually gone to sleep all week," Danny said, "There was no way I was going to wake you up." It was true; Sarah had barely slept a wink since they had left the Philips's house about a week ago. She merely nodded in response and started to dig through her backpack for something to eat for breakfast. There was one last can tuna. She morphed and bit a hole in the top of the can, then pealed the top of.

Sarah and Danny split the tuna can's contents and set off into the sky. They were going to have to stop somewhere and get more food. Both of their backpacks combined could only carry about a weeks worth of food at a time, and they were only eating enough to keep from starving to death.

About half an hour later, they were flying over a city. Sarah saw what looked like a shopping plaza, and flew lower. They landed in a bunch of trees so as to not be seen, and walked into the parking lot of a Dollar General Store. As the two reached the front of the building, they saw that it wasn't open yet.

After a sitting in the bunch of trees that they had landed in, Danny saw that someone had come to open the store. He awoke Sarah, who had fallen asleep against a tree trunk, and the two walked back over to the store.

"I don't know about this," Danny said as he looked inside the store windows. Nobody was inside except for the people who worked there.

"I don't think we have much of a choice," Sarah said as she opened the door. The door chimed, causing the casher to look up. The young casher gave them an odd look as they walked in, and Sarah could only imagine what he must have been thinking. There they were; two filthy, half starved, barefoot, and probably smelly, kids with no parents in sight, looking like they just walked out of a Tarzan movie, minus the animal skins.

The two found the food section, and started to load up on the cheapest canned goods. When they had gotten all that they could carry, they went to the register to pay. The casher rang up their purchase as Sarah dug for the 150.00 dollars that Max had given them before they had left. After paying, Sarah and Danny quickly left the store, uncomfortable under the casher's curious stare.

"Well that was the most awkward experience in my entire life," Danny announced as they walked back over to the treed area.

"It could have been worse," Sarah said, "he could have called the police." Danny shrugged and started taking the food out of the plastic bags. They packed the cans into their backpacks and started walking down the street. It had been a while since they had been in a city, and they both wanted to check it out.

"Man, people sure are rude around here," Danny said as yet another lady shielded her child from them as if they were dressed in black and white striped jumpsuits.

"Yeah," Sarah agreed, "Do we really look that bad?"

"Probably," Danny replied with a shrug. After a while they reached a bench outside a subway station and sat down. Sarah pulled the map out of her backpack.

"We left the Philips's house, which I think was in Oregon," Sarah said, looking at the map, "Last time we stopped, we were in Los Vegas –"

"That was interesting," Danny interrupted with a laugh. Sarah continued to study the map.

"We've been going south since then, and that was about three days ago," Sarah said aloud.

"Why don't we just ask somebody where we are?" Danny asked.

"Because no one will let us get within five feet of them," Sarah said with slight annoyance.

"I bet we can find someone," Danny replied as he stood up. Sarah put the map away and stood up too. She followed Danny, who was walking towards a group of guys.

"Danny, I think this is a very good idea," she said as she caught up with him.

"Relax," Danny said, "What's the worse that can happen?" Sarah gave him a funny look.

"Do you seriously want me to answer that?" she asked. But Danny ignored her as he walked boldly up to the group of men.

"Excuse me," he said confidently, "Can one of you tell me where we are?" The men all turned to look at the two teens. They all had big, muscled bodies seemed to be covered in tattoos, something that Danny had failed noticed until now. All of the men were also wearing the same colored jackets with a logo of a big, red, vicious looking cat on them; all together, they were a pretty rough looking crowd.

"You wanna know where you are?" asked one of the men in a loud voice. Danny, afraid of what he had just gotten himself into, merely nodded.

"I'll tell you where you are," the man continued, "you're in Red Panther territory."

"Is that a football team or something?" Sarah asked, trying to hide the fact that she was actually intimidated by them. The group of men sneered at them and one stepped closed to them, bending down some so that he was face to face with her.

"No it ain't a football team, it's the biggest, baddest, most powerful gang in the whole city," he said, Sarah could smell alcohol, cigarette smoke, and who knows what else on his breath, "and you know what happens to little punks like you who come into _our_ territory?" Sarah and Danny both shook their heads slightly, also noticing the other men pulling out guns, knives, and a variation of other metal objects from their jackets, and started to form a circle around them.

The man in front of them stood up straight, and looked around at the others.

"Well boys," he said loudly, "why don't we give them a little demonstration?" The men sneered and started to move in, making their circle tighter.

"We're gonna' make a run for it," Sarah whispered to Danny, "but don't fly yet, we can't risk being seen." Danny nodded and prepared to break out of the circle.

"Now!" Sarah yelled, and the two lunged forward, breaking past the men.

"Get them!" one of the men called and the gang immediately ran after them.

Sarah and Danny ran down the street at full speed, just now noticing how empty the sidewalks were. Other people must have known better than to come this way.

As they ran, one of the gang members pulled out a cell-phone and pushed a speed dial button.

"Hey Johnny," he said into the phone, "We got some trouble makers headin' your way. You might wanna send some guys out; you know what I'm sayin'?"

"I got it covered," Said a deep voice from the other end of the phone line. The man hung up and continued to chase the two 'trouble makers' towards the trap.

As Sarah and Danny ran, they could see a rundown looking warehouse ahead. Thinking that it might be a good place to hide, they ran towards it. They were just about to reach the building, when more gang members with the same tiger jackets came running out at them.

The two skidded to a stop, then turned and ran up a different street. The sound of gunshots rang through the air as some of the gang member opened fire on them.

"Can we blow our cover _now?!_" Danny asked as a bullet whizzed past his head.

"Go for it!" Sarah said, practically yelling over the sound of gunshots. They both spread their wings and took running leaps into the sky. As they flew past the rooftops of the city, Sarah notice the gunshots have stopped. She looked down and saw that the gang was staring at them with identical expressions of shock on their faces. She couldn't help both laugh some as they soared higher.

It was night time now, and the two had set up camp on the forest floor. They were miles away from the city now; though neither of them knew exactly where they were, or even what state they were in.

It was Sarah's turn to take the first watch. She sat with her back against a tree; facing the poorly lit woods around them.

"Today was pretty…interesting," Danny said, "We went grocery shopping, got chased by a gang, and now we're settling in for another oh so comfortable sleep on the ground."

Sarah laughed, "Just another average day, huh?" Danny smiled as he made himself comfortable of the ground.

"That's right, just another day in the life."


	3. Intruder

**Author's note: That's right folks! Another chapter!**

The next morning, Danny had got a fire going, and was now roasting some Vienna sausages on a stick, quite pleased with himself. Sarah walked over and plopped down on the other side of the fire.

"Check it out!" Danny said, "I made fire." He looked like a puppy who had just learned a new trick, or perhaps a child who had discovered a new toy.

"Great," Sarah said, "Maybe tomorrow we can make a wheel out of stone."

"Somebody got up on the wrong side of the dirt this morning," Danny said, completely unaffected by Sarah's sarcasm. He tossed Sarah the can of sausages.

"I'm just tired," Sarah said as she skewered some sausages on a stick.

"Still not getting enough sleep, huh?" Danny asked, he pulled a couple of sausages off the end of his stick and ate them.

"Yeah, I guess," Sarah replied, eating a couple of her own sausages. The two were quiet for a little while as they roasted the sausages.

Behind her, Sarah heard a twig snap. It was almost so quiet, that if they had been talking, she would have never noticed it.

Sarah turned and looked for the source of the snap, but saw nothing but trees and under brush. She decided not to pay it any attention and went back to roasting her sausages.

A few seconds later, she heard another twig snap. This time she froze and listened intently to the sounds around them. All she heard was the usual forest sounds. She looked over at Danny and saw that he too was frozen, listening.

Sarah could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand on end; the feeling she got when she was being watched. She glanced over at Danny; their eyes met. He nodded his head slightly, showing that he felt it too.

Sarah stood up slowly, set her sausage stick down, and started to cover the fire with dirt to put it out. Danny also stood up, putting his stick down as well, and made himself look busy.

Both of them made sure that their backs were turned towards the direction that the sounds had come from, hoping to fool whoever was trying to sneak up on them.

They knew that their plan had worked when they heard an ever so faint crunching of leaves; footsteps.

As the footsteps approached, the two tensed; ready to pounce on their intruder. Danny glanced at Sarah; she nodded her head slightly, signaling him that it was time to take action now.

Both of them spun around suddenly, catching their intruder off guard. It was a boy about their age. He was about to the edge of their camp sight, a deer-in-headlights look on his face.

Sarah took a step towards the boy, unsure of what to do. The boy stepped back, as he did so he began to morph.

**Author's note: Oh no! It's a cliffhanger! Ahh! Don't worry, I'll put the next chapter up tomorrow.**


	4. Friend or Foe?

**Author's note: Ok, hope you enjoy this chapter, please review and such.**

The boy was a wolf/human hybrid. Sarah and Danny were surprised, but quickly got over it as they too began to morph.

Seeing them morph, the boy tensed and began to snarl; ready for a fight. But they only stood there, staring at each other; waiting for someone to make the first move.

Behind them, Danny heard a rustling noise, and turned to see a girl picking up their backpacks in attempt to steal them. He turned and jumped at the girl, causing her to scream and fall backwards.

The boy lunged at Danny, causing him to fall down too. Sarah pulled the boy off of Danny, but he in turn, and attacked her. Danny jumped in to help Sarah, but was attacked by the other girl.

Danny, not wanting to fight someone younger than him, flew up into the sky to get away. The girl followed him and continued her attack.

Danny mainly just blocked the girl's kicks and punches. But something far off behind the girl caught his attention. It was the all too familiar black helicopter from the compound; and it was heading right towards them.

Immediately, he flew to the ground to where Sarah and the other boy were still fighting.

"Sarah!" Danny yelled to her to catch her attention, "they're coming, we've gotta' hide!" Sarah and the boy stopped fighting and looked at Danny.

"I saw they're helicopter," Danny told them, "the guards are find us if we don't hide."

The other boy looked around, "Where's Stell?" he asked. He looked up and saw the girl still hovering in the sky, staring wide-eyed at the helicopter.

"Stell!" he yelled up to her, "Stell, come down here!" The girl stayed where she was.

The boy unfurled his wings and quickly flew up to where the girl was. He grabbed her hand and led her to the ground. But it was too late; the helicopter had already spotted them and was already unloading its passengers.

"Come on," the boy said, leading the girl, Stell, away. Sarah and Danny grabbed their backpacks and prepared for a fight; they didn't have anywhere to run too.

The boy stopped and looked back at them, "Hey!" he called to them, "You should probably come to!" Sarah and Danny looked at each other, and deciding that it was the better choice, followed the boy.

The boy had led them to a small, well hidden cave that was close to where Sarah and Danny had been camping for the night. They were cramped as far back into the cave as they could go, being as quiet as possible. They could hear the guards not too far away.

"Over here!" they heard one say, "I've found their trail!" They had forgotten that the guards could track their scent. If they stayed where they were, there was no doubt that they'd be found. Just then, Sarah got an idea.

She stood up and started to move towards the cave entrance.

"What are you doing?" Danny asked her in a hushed voice.

"I'm gonna' lead them away," Sarah answered, by the sound of her voice, Danny could tell that there was no stopping her.

"Fine, just be careful," Danny said, "and try not to get yourself killed will ya'." Sarah only nodded as she slipped out of the cave.

"Is she crazy?" the boy asked.

Danny nodded, "Just a little bit."


	5. Helicopter Lessons

Sarah was hidden behind a tree, watching the guards search for them. All of them were already morphed. There were seven of them, four wolf hybrids and three tigers.

Sarah unfurled her wing slightly and took a deep breath, praying that her plan would work. She jumped out from her hiding place and ran right through the group of guards, quickly gaining their attention. She unfurled her wing completely and took a running leap into the air. The guards followed like the bunch of dogs that they were.

Sarah looked ahead of her and saw the compound's helicopter hovering above the land; doors open, unguarded, and the only person inside was the pilot. Another idea popped up into Sarah's head.

She flew inside of the helicopter, closed the door, and snuck quietly into the cockpit. The pilot was apparently unaware of the intrusion. Suddenly, Sarah remembered something that she had seen in a kung-foo movie while she was at the Philips. She reached over and pinched the pressure point at the base of his neck, holding it for a few seconds. Almost immediately, the pilot slumped over, unconscious, in his chair.

"Cool," Sarah said aloud to herself as she moved the pilot to the floor, "I've gotta' remember that one."

Sarah plopped down into the chair, and looked at buttons on the control panel. It suddenly occurred to her that flying a helicopter may not be very easy. She heard the guards outside attempting to open the helicopter's door.

Sarah grabbed the control stick thing and pushed it forward. Suddenly, the helicopter jerked forward. She pulled back on the controller, making it slow down some. She made it turn around and pushed the 'Auto Pilot' button.

Sarah stood up and went over to the pilot, who turned out to be just another scientist, and drug him out of the cockpit. She opened the door and saw that the guards were flying along side the helicopter.

"Here," she said over the rushing wind, "you can have this back!" She tossed the pilot out, letting one of the guards catch him, and then returned to the cockpit, not bothering to close the door.

She sat down in the chair and pushed the control stick forward again, then pushed every single button on the control panel.

"Waning, malfunction," said a computerized voice. Sarah took that as a hint to get out of there. She ran out of the cockpit and jumped out of the open door, leaving the guards with the malfunctioning helicopter.

A couple of seconds later, there was a loud explosion as bits of helicopter, and possible compound guard, flew threw the air.

Sarah didn't bother looking back as she plummeted towards the Earth. Sarah unfurled her wings and flew back down into the trees.

It took her a little while to find the cave again, but eventually she did. She called the others out and told them what had happened.

"You blew up their helicopter?" Danny asked; Sarah nodded. "Well that's a new one," he said with a smile, "Why didn't we do that before?" Sarah shrugged.

"I guess we'd better get going," the other boy said, "sorry about the confusion earlier."

Sarah looked at them, "You don't have to go," she said, "you two can stay with us if you want."

"That'd be awesome!" the girl, Stell, said. The boy on the other hand was skeptical.

"I don't know," he said.

"Please Vince?" Stell asked the boy, "It'd be so cool to hang out with other kids." She gave him puppy dog eyes.

Finally, the boy caved, "Okay, fine," he said, "I guess it couldn't hurt." Stell's face cracked into a huge smile.

"Great," Sarah said, "but I think we'd better moving before the guard's call in backup." The others nodded and one at a time, they took off into the sky.

**Author's note: Yeah, so if my description on how helicopters are flown is a little off, it's probably because I've been inside a helicopter even in my life! I was just looking at a picture of the inside of one and trying to image how it worked. **


	6. Lunch Time!

They had been flying for a while now, and decided that it was time to stop and eat. The group flew to the ground and cleared some places to sit.

"What do you guys want?" Danny asked as he rummaged through his backpack.

"Food would be good," the boy, Vince, answered.

Danny held up a can, "I've got chili," he said. He morphed and bit the top of the can, then peeled the lid off.

"That a cool trick," Vince said, "Where'd you learn it?"

"From her," Danny said pointing at Sarah, "yesterday." Sarah was attempting to get a small fire started with two sticks.

"Rocks will work better," Vince told her, "let me show ya'." Vince picked up two rocks and stared hitting/scraping them together; soon small sparks started to fly off on the rocks and landing on the pile of pine straw Sarah had made. A couple of minutes later, they had a fire going.

Danny set the can of chili in the middle of the low flames until the contents started to bubble. He passed the can around to everyone until it was empty. He tossed the can into the fire and watched as the paper label burned off. They were quiet for a moment as they looked into the flames.

"So how did you two escape the compound?" Sarah asked, breaking the silence.

"Well," Vince said, "we heard the guards chasing after some other experiment that had gotten away from them. Apparently, there was a fight in the control room, because about ten different alarms started going off. Then, all of the cages in our sector opened automatically. We're not sure how it happened; all we knew was that our cages were open and that there was no one guarding the halls. We made a run for it and got out."

Sarah and Danny looked at each other.

"That was us," Danny said, "We got away and were chased into the control room were we started a fight with the guards. Then some buttons got pushed and set off the alarms and opened the cages."

"Wow, thanks," Vince said with a smile, "You know what, I don't think we introduced ourselves."

"This is Stell," he said gesturing to the girl, "She's 11."

"Hi," Stell said with a small wave.

"And my name's Vince, I'm 15," Vince said.

"I'm Sarah," Sarah said "and this is-"

Danny cut her off, "My names Danny, and we're both 15 too. I've got a question, what were you two doing trying to do, sneaking up on us back there anyways?"

"Well," Vince started, "we ran out of food a couple of days ago. We just thought you guys were hikers or something and were kinda planning on taking your stuff. Sorry."

Sarah and Danny looked at each other; they both knew that if it was them, they probably would have done the same.

"It's okay," Sarah said, "No harm done right?"

"Yeah," Vince said, "I guess." Stell was looking at the ground, Sarah could tell that she was sorry too.

Sarah looked at the two kids sitting across from them. She was trying to see if she recognized them from the compound, but they didn't look familiar.

Vince had brown hair, his wings were a tan color with brown streaks and when had was morphed, his fur was the same color as his hair. His face was covered with dirt smudges and a few small cuts. He had pale skin and looked like he hadn't eaten in days, he had bags under his eye from lack of sleep.

Stell had caramel colored skin and dark, frizzy hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. Her wings were raven black, and when she was morphed, her fur matched them. It turns out that she was a human/panther hybrid. Vince and Stell acted like they were brother and sister, just like Sarah and Danny did. She could tell that the two had grown up together.

Sarah noticed that Stell also looked like she hadn't eaten a decent meal in a while.

Then it occurred to her that they didn't have enough food to feed four people, they barely had enough for themselves. Soon they would run out of money and would have to resort to hunting for food; something that Sarah wasn't very fond of.

**Author's note: I dont' really like how this chapter came out, but it was mainly here to inform the readers of some facts. And to answer any questions that you guys might have.**


	7. The Orchard

**Author's note: Yay! Now for a fun chapter! Oh and major thanks to Asuterisuku for being an awesome proof reader and informing me that oranges will explode if put in a fire!**

A few days had past, and so far, the group was no closer to closing down the compound then before. Vince and Stell had agreed to help, but even so, it was a job to take on, and they didn't even know where to start.

Over the last few days, Sarah and Danny had gotten to where they trusted Vince and Stell. Not only that, but since they had been flying south, the weather had gotten considerably warmer. Plus ever since Sarah had destroyed their helicopter, the guards hadn't showed up once. They figured it had to do with the lack of fast transportation.

Also, without the guards popping up at any given moment and slowing them down, they had been able to cover a lot more miles in a day. They had made it all the way to Florida and were hoping that the guards had lost track of them.

The sun was going down now, and the gang was looking for a place to stop for the night. After a while, they just settled for a bunch of clustered trees.

While looking for sticks for a fire, Vince noticed an odd looking clump on one of the trees. In the fading light, it almost looked like a bundle of orange balls. He walked closer to get a better look.

Up close, Vince saw that is _was_ a bundle of orange balls. They were oranges! Vince pulled one off, peeled it, and ate it. He couldn't even remember the last time he had eaten an orange.

Vince pulled some more out of the tree and hurried back to their camp.

"Hey guys," he said as he reached the others, "check it out!" He held up an orange.

"Whoa, is that an orange?" Danny asked. Vince nodded and tossed one to him.

"They're in all of the trees," Vince said, "This must be an orange orchard or something." Sarah looked around at the trees. Unlike most orchards, these trees were untrimmed and the oranges on them were just let to rot.

"It must be abandoned," Sarah said, "It looks like no one's taken care of the trees in while."

"Oh well," Stell said, "their loss, our gain." She peeled her orange and bit into it. Sarah shrugged and peeled the orange that Vince had tossed to her.

Within a couple of hours, the group had probably eaten their weight in oranges. Danny had filled his almost empty backpack full of the fruit. Sarah had done the same.

"Man," Vince said, "I can't even remember the last time I had a full stomach." He was laying on his back, looking up into the sky.

"Yeah," Danny said, "Me neither." He was rolling an orange around in his hand.

"I wander what would happen if you put an orange near the fire." Danny said.

Vince shrugged, "Try it," he said. Danny got up and put the orange right next to the flames of the fire. Vince got up and walked around the fire to watch the orange.

Just then, Sarah and Stell came back from picking more oranges.

"What are you two up too?" Sarah said, but her question was soon answered by a popped sound and orange pulp exploding everywhere.

The two boys burst out laughing as they picked the pieces of orange off them. Sarah couldn't help but roll her eyes and smile.

"I leave you guys alone for five minutes and you make an orange explode," She said.

Stell walked over to where the two boys were, "How'd you do it?" she asked.

Vince managed to stop laughing and got another orange. He put it in the same place as the other one and waited; soon it blew up too. He started cackling again.

Sarah threw an orange at Vince, "Knock it off," she laughed, "You're gonna wake up all of China!" Vince picked up the orange and threw it back at her. A couple of minute later they had started a full fledge orange fight.

The kids laughed and had fun for the first time in years; having no idea that they where being watched.

**Author's note: Oooh! Cliffhanger! Well i better go write the next chapter. Keep reading!**


	8. Strangers

**Author's note: Another day, another chapter.**

The two young boys watched as the intruders threw oranges at each other. Then one, a brown haired boy, unfolded a pair of wings and took off, throwing oranges down from the sky. The two boys gasped and ran back to their home.

They burst through the door of the abandoned house and ran to find their sisterly figure.

The two boys found her upstairs, asleep in her room. They barged in and jumped onto her bed, jumping up and down.

"June, June!" they cried in unison, "June wake up!" The girl mumbled and sat up.

"What," she asked as she rubbed her eyes.

The two boys continued to bounce excitedly on the bed, "June, there are people in the orange grove! One has wings like us!" One of the boys said.

"What?!" June asked loudly as she got up and hurried to the door.

"Don't worry," the other boy said, "I don't think their guards, they're too funny."

"Dale, that doesn't mean that they aren't guards," June told him as she headed down the stairs.

"But they were too young, and not nearly as scary," the other boy said, "and they don't act like guards. They probably won't even stay very long."

June sighed and decided that the boy was probably right.

"Dallas, Dale, you two should probably get to bed," she said. The two brothers nodded and went back up the stairs. Taking care of two nine year old twin boys was hard; but at least they listened.

June plopped down in a chair and thought about what to do. There was no way that she was going to let the guards find them. This abandoned orchard was the best thing that had every happened to them; besides escaping the compound that is.

She decided not to trust the judgment of two nine-year-olds and went outside to find these intruders.

It didn't take long for June to find the group; they were only making enough noise to be hear three states over. Plus they had a big fire going, which made a lot of smoke. She crouched behind a tree trunk and watched them.

Dallas and Dale were right; there was no way that these people were guards. For one thing, they weren't old enough; one girl looked younger than her, the other three looked only a couple of years older.

But just because they weren't guards, didn't mean they weren't a threat. With all the commotion they were making, the guards were bound to show up.

June was thinking of a way to run them off when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Dallas crouching behind her.

"Please don't make them leave," he whispered, his big blue eyes looked up at her. June couldn't help but cave, the twins got away with everything because of those eyes.

"Okay Dall, I won't make them leave…yet," June said as she rustled his dirty blond hair.

"Now where's your brother?" she asked but her question was soon answered by a loud snap as Dale fell from a tree. He landed right in the middle of the strangers' camp with the branch that broke when he fell on top of him.

Everyone went dead quiet as they all stared at Dale. June's blood turned to ice as her heart skipped a beat. One of the strangers took a step toward Dale; June didn't know if they were going to help him or hurt him, but she wasn't taking that chance.

June leapt from behind the tree, morphing as she did so, and stood in front of Dale. Dallas came and stood beside her, he too was already morphed.

**Author's note: What's this? New characters?! Oh no! I guess you better come back tomorrow and find out what happens!**


	9. Change in Plans

**Author's note: Hey guys! I need another favor from you today! Don't worry, this one isn't hard. Do you guys know any good big cat names? And by big cat I mean lion, tiger, puma, all that good stuff. Oh, and it has to be a male name. And with that said, on with the story!**

Sarah laughed as Danny threw another orange at her and missed. She picked one up off the ground and was about to throw one at him when a loud cracking sound stopped her.

A young boy, about nine or ten, fell out of a tree and landed right in the middle of their camp. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at him. The broken branch that he fell from had landed on top of him.

Sarah took a step forward to help him, but someone else jumped out and stood in front of him. It was a girl, but she was morphed into some kind of human/leopard hybrid. Sarah had never seen any hybrid that was part leopard.

Another hybrid, a young boy came and stood beside her. He was a wolf/human hybrid and looked about the same age as the other boy.

The girl was watching them intensely; in a way, she was very intimidating. The boy standing beside her bent down and lifted the branch off the other boy. The boy stood up and came to stand next to the other two.

After a while of just staring, the girl must have figured that they weren't going to attack and morphed back to normal. The one boy did the same.

The girl looked about thirteen and had a distinct Asian look. But the two boys were defiantly the strangest. They both looked the same age, about nine. They both had dirty blond hair. And they both looked exactly alike.

"Hi!" said one of the boys enthusiastically, "I'm Dale and that's Dallas." He pointed to the boy who looked like him, "We're twins!" The girl bumped him with her arm.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in an unfriendly voice.

"Probably the same thing you're doing here," Sarah answered.

"Did the compound send you?" the girl asked coldly.

"No. We escaped the compound. We came here all the way from Oregon." The girl gave them a funny look.

"The compound is in Texas," she said, "that's where we came from."

"No, I'm pretty sure that the compound is in Oregon," Sarah said.

"Unless…" Danny said from behind her, "Unless there's more than one. I mean, we came from compound 24, right? That means there could be at least 23 more compounds out there. Think about it."

Sarah did; and the more she thought about it, the more possible it seemed.

"But then they'd have to have a headquarters, wouldn't they," Sarah asked no one in particular.

"They do," the girl said, "it's in Canada." Sarah was surprised at that.

"How do you know?" She asked.

"I've been there," the girl said, "All three of us have. When we escaped the compound in Texas, we took some papers with us. Once we found out that the headquarters was in Canada, we went there and tried to shut it down."

"What happened?" Sarah asked.

"It was too big of a job for just the three of us. When we went we almost got caught. We barely escaped. Then we came back to the U.S. and found this place. We've been hiding here since."

"We're trying to shut down the compound too," Sarah said, "And since you've been to the headquarters, maybe you could help us."

The girl shook her head, "We don't ever want to go back there again. It was a horrible place, and we barely got away the first time."

"But there would be more of us this time," Sarah insisted, "I bet we could find a way to shut them down for good. All of them."

The girl took a minute to think about it. It didn't look like she liked the idea.

"Come on June," one of the boys beside her said, "I'm tired of not doing anything. And I think they're right." The girl, June, looked down at the boy.

"Ok," she sighed, "we'll help." The two young boys exchanged excited looks and high fived each other.

"Hey June," one said, "Can we show them the house?" June nodded.

The boys smiled and Ran ahead, "Come on, follow us!" they both shouted.

**Author's note: Well there you go, another chapter. Review and tell me what you think. **


	10. Sit Down and Think

The twins led them to an old looking house. They went inside and sat down in the main room.

The two twins were chasing each other around when June interrupted them.

"You two had better get to bed," she said in a surprisingly mother-ish manner. One of the boys went, but the other stayed.

"Aww, but I don't wanna'," whined one of the boys.

"Go to bed Dallas," June said firmly. Dallas grumbled, but did as he was told. The room was quiet for a few seconds.

"How do you put up with that all the time?" Vince asked, Stell elbowed him.

June smiled, "They aren't usually that bad, I think it's all the excitement. I've known them almost their whole lives, and I guess they've gotten used to listening to me."

"How can you tell them apart?" Danny asked.

"Once you get to know them, it's pretty easy," June answered. The room was quiet for a while.

"So how are we going to do this?" Vince asked no one in particular, "How are we going to go to Canada?"

"We can fly there," Sarah said.

"I know that," he replied, "But isn't it going to be cold up there? I mean, it's only February, and Canada's pretty far north." Sarah hadn't thought about that.

"I don't know," she said, "maybe we can wait until it gets warmer."

"If we wait that long," Danny butted in, "Then we'll probably get caught before we even get the chance."

"The twins and I have lived here for months, and they haven't found _us_ yet," June said.

"Yeah," Danny said, "But we probably shouldn't take that chance." The other nodded in agreement.

"Well," Sarah said, "There are seven of us now. Maybe we can hold the guards off until we can get to the headquarters."

"But what about food," Stell pointed out, "There was barely enough for the four of us. How are we gonna' manage seven of us?"

"When we were on the run," June said, "the twins and I stopped and ate at soup kitchens. We would hurry and make sure that no one really noticed us."

"I guess we could do that," Sarah said.

"So…" Danny said, "When do we have to leave?" By the sound of his voice, it was obvious that he didn't want to leave just yet.

"I guess we could stay for a little while," Sarah said, "After all, we don't get this lucky very often."

The others smiled at the idea of staying at the grove longer. They would have more than enough food, a place to run around and exercise, and best of all, an actual house to stay in. But one little thought was buzzing in the back of Sarah's head. One bothering phrase, 'When were they going to have to give it up?'


	11. Night Flight

**Author's note: OK, so I'm not going to be able to update for the next week because I'm leaving for a vacation this weekend (finally!) and I thought that this was a good chapter to stop at. So yeah...on with the chapter:**

That night, June lay asleep in her bed. The nightmares that she had gotten over a couple of months ago were now back with a vengeance. The nightmares about the Compound Headquarters. The ones where images of horribly mutated experiments were left to suffer in their cages. The ones where the guards were more animal than human. The ones where the scientists separate her and the twins, taking them off to different sectors.

June jolted awake and sat up in bed. She was covered in cold sweat; the nightmares still fresh in her head. She didn't want to go back to that place. More than anything, she

just wanted to run, fly, and forget the whole thing. But June knew that if they were going to stop those people, she was going to have to go back.

June stood up and walked over to the window. She looked over the grove and into the forest that surrounded it. Silently, she opened the window and stepped out onto the edge onto the small ledge outside of it. June unfurled her dark brown wings and let herself fall forward.

Just before she hit the ground, June pulled out of her fall and flew off into the sky. The warm Florida air blew against her face as she gained height and speed.

The moon was orange and round, almost as if someone had dangled an orange fruit in the sky. June felt her fears melt away as a calm feeling took over her body. Their was like flying to put one's mind at peace.

June kept flying until she reached the beach. She landed in a thick patch of tall weeds and stepped out onto the sand. The feeling of sand in between her toes never got old.

She went to the water's edge and started to walk down the beach. She soon saw other people taking a night walk on the beach. She was glad that it was dark and they couldn't see her too well.

June started to walk faster, feeling an itch run. She started to jog a little but then broke out in a full speed run. She felt the water splashing as her feet hit it. The scenery was rushing by her as she ran past it. People were turning to look at her and making remarks about how she must be a track runner.

Once out of sight of everyone, June unfurled her wings again and took off. She flew at her full speed of 200mph. She started to slow as she felt the humid air starting to take its toll on her. If there was one thing that she wouldn't miss about Florida, it was the humidity.

June reached the grove and slowed as she flew down to the house and into her window. She flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep.

**Author's note: Kind of short, I know, but I didn't think you guys would like it if I left you with a cliffhanger. So I was nice and cut it off at a nice stopping point. I'll be back in about a week or so. Toodles!**


	12. Trouble Ahead

**Author's note: Hey guys, sorry for the wait. I know it must have killed you. :) But here's the ext chapter, enjoy!**

Sarah was sitting in a tree, looking out over the grove. The sun was just starting to climb up into the sky, making the dew on the leaves sparkle.

This was quite possibly the most beautiful thing that Sarah had ever seen. Although, considering that she grew up in a cage, that wasn't really saying much.

Sarah liked it here in the orange grove; it was warm, peaceful, spacious, and course there was plenty of food. She hated the idea of leaving just as much as everyone else; but she hated the compound even more. Maybe once they got rid of the compound, they could come back here to live.

Before Sarah could think anymore about the subject, she heard a slight fluttering and felt the branch she was sitting on bend lower under the weight of another person. She turned her head and saw that Danny had sat down on her branch.

"You sure are up early," He said brightly.

"Well you kind of get into the habit when you wake up at the crack of darn every day," Sarah remarked.

"Haven't been getting you beauty sleep, huh?" Danny said with his same old annoying grin, "I guess that would explain it!"

"How 'bout I wipe that stupid grin of your face?" Sarah said heatedly.

"Ooh, I'm scared!" Danny said, pretending to shake. Sarah rolled her eyes and pushed him out of the tree. He landed feet first on the ground about sixteen feet below.

"That wasn't very nice Sarah!" Danny called up to her.

"You've got wings, learn how to use them," Sarah called back down, she couldn't help but smile.

"I can, and I do a much better job at it than you," Danny said loudly. Sarah jumped from the branch and landed on her feet in front of him.

"Wanna' bet?" She said. Danny took that as a cue to start running; Sarah was close behind him. Danny took off with Sarah right on his tail.

The chase continued until Danny landed, running inside the house. He ran up the stairs, Sarah right behind him, and ran into one of the bedrooms, locking the door.

"Oh real mature Danny," Sarah said as she reached the Danny. She could hear Danny snickering on the other side.

"Come out here and take it like a man!" Sarah said loudly. She hit the door, but decided that it would be better to just walk away.

She went back outside and grabbed an orange off a tree. She took off into the air as she peeled it, deciding to do some exploring. As she flew over the woods that surrounded the grove, she saw a small paved road. Figuring that it must lead to somewhere, Sarah followed the road from the sky.

A couple of minutes later, she had reached a small city. Sarah landed behind a building and walked around to the front.

She started walking down the sidewalk, enjoying the warm weather. As she walked, Sarah noticed that she was receiving some odd looks from other people. Even though she should be well use to people's rude stares, Sarah couldn't help but feel put down by them.

Sarah was just about to head back to the grove, when a screech of tires and wail of police sirens caught her attention. She looked up and saw a minivan zoom around the corner of the street, swerve right off the road, and begin to plow right through a crowded park. The police cars that were chasing it stopped and the officers jumped out.

Without thinking, Sarah unfurled her wings and took off after the speeding vehicle. The minivan was nearing other end of the park, and about to go right back into traffic. Sarah flew right up next to the minivan and looked inside of the open window. The driver was slumped in his seat; his hands weren't even on the steering wheel.

Sarah reached inside of the window and opened the door. She pushed the driver out of the seat and took the wheel, hoping that driving was as easy as it looked. She turned the wheel right, making the vehicle turn away from the traffic.

She pushed down one of the floor pedals; though, apparently, it was the gas pedal. The car lunged forward even faster. Sarah took her foot off of the pedal and pushed the other one. The tires started to skid on the grass and throw dirt, but the vehicle wasn't going to stop in time to keep from going back on the street.

In a last attempt to stop the car, Sarah went back out the window and flow to the front of the car. She morphed as she put both of her hands on the nose of the minivan. She then dug her feet into the ground, her clawed bare feet drug the ground as the minivan began to slow.

About five seconds later, the minivan drove right into a tree, Sarah still in front of it. Sarah's breath was knocked out of her as the car sandwiched her between it and the tree, but at least the vehicle had stopped. Sarah tried to push the car forward, but found that she was stuck.

People who were watching began to swarm forward to get a better look, but the police held them back. Several people with cell phones started to snap pictures of the scene.

A couple of police officers walked towards Sarah and the minivan. One took the driver out of the car while the other stood about two feet away from Sarah with a black object held out towards her.

"Don't move," he said in an authoritive voice, but Sarah continued to struggle against the car's weight.

"I said stop moving," the cop said, "Don't make me have to tase you." Sarah stopped struggling and looked at the policeman, confused.

'_Why would he tase me?' _Sarah though, then she remembered that she was still morphed.

'_Great,'_ she thought to herself, _'how am I going to get out of this one?_


	13. Animal Control

**Author's note: Hey guys! Sorry for not updating for a couple days, but with school starting back and all, my schedule is kinda chaotic. I'll try to update at least 3 to 4 times a week. And with said, on with the story!**

The other policeman came around to the front of the minivan; he was leading the driver by the arm.

"Drunk driver," the policeman said as he walked the driver to his squad car. The other officer only nodded, not taking his eyes off Sarah.

Sarah had though it would be better not to stay morphed that for the police to see her actual human face.

'_How could I be so stupid?!' _Sarah thought, mentally kicking herself. She saw a live news van park on the side of the road; a couple of guys got out and started to unload a news camera.

'_Great,' _Sarah though, _'just perfect.' _A more police cars showed up; the officers had to squeeze through the rather large crowd that had gathered. Sarah tried once again to free herself from the car that was pinning her against the tree.

"Freeze!" said one of the cops. Sarah ignored him and continued trying to wiggle free.

"It probably doesn't understand us," said a female cop. Sarah was almost insulted being called an 'It', but decided that saying anything would only lead to more trouble.

Yet another vehicle parked behind the police cars. This one was a white van with the words 'Animal Control' on the sides.

'_Oh, come on!'_ Sarah thought as two Animal Control people got out of their van. They made their way through the crowd and into the area that the police had blocked off.

"What do you think?" a policeman asked them.

"I've never seen anything like this," one answered, "But we'll take it back to the Animal Control center and hold it there until we can figure out what to do with it."

The other Animal Control guy held up a tranquilizer gun and fired it at Sarah. The small dart hit her in the arm.

Sarah pulled it out and dropped it. The spot where it had been was burning a little, but soon it went numb like the rest of her body. Her eyes drooped as the tranquilizer started to take affect. The next thing she knew, Sarah was out like a light.

**Author's note: Yeah, it's kinda short, but it seemed like a good place to stop for now. But I'll have the next chapter up as soon as possible, I promise!**


	14. Stupid Smart People

**Author's note: Well, here's the next chapter, enjoy...**

When Sarah woke up, she was in an almost empty room. The only other thing that she could see was a large dog bed in the corner. The walls were all white, except for a window and a brown door on the other side of the room.

Sarah got up and walked over to the window. Looking into it, she saw her reflection; she was still morphed.

Sarah looked out the window. There was a hallway outside of the room; from the looks of it, she was in some kind of science building. Her stomach felt like it did a summersault.

She hit the window with her fist as hard as she could, but was immediately sorry when her hand made contact with the glass. The window remained intact, but Sarah's hand hurt from hitting the glass so hard.

Sarah gritted her teeth as the pain slowly stopped. Then she took as few steps back, and ran at the window. She did a flying kick at the glass, but only fell backwards on the ground. The window was still there.

Ticked off and frustrated, Sarah went over to a corner and sat down to think.

A couple of minutes later, a guy in a white coat looked in the window then hurried away.

'_He's probably running off to tell his scientist buddies that I'm awake,'_ Sarah thought to herself. That gave her an idea.

Sarah went over and crouched under the window and waited. Sure enough, the door opened.

She lunged forward, right past the surprised scientists, and bolted down the hallway. Sarah only made it to the end of the corridor before an alarm went off and big metal doors came down, blocking her way out.

Sarah turned, half expecting to see hulking werewolf-like guards running towards her. But instead, it was just a bunch of normal, human scientists.

She ran past them again and made her way to the other end of the hallway, but it was blocked too. She turned and looked behind her.

'_Congratulations,' _Sarah though, _'you just locked yourselves in a hallway with me.' _For a bunch of scientists, they didn't seem all too smart.

The scientists were walking slowly and cautiously towards her. They had that 'Come here dumb animal, we're not going to hurt you' look on their faces.

'_Well, if they're gonna treat me like a dumb animal, then I'm gonna act like one,' _Sarah though. She bolted forward, running on all fours. She jumped up and landed on the first scientist's chest, knocking him to the floor. She snarled at him, showing her wolfish teeth. He let out a surprisingly girlish scream that Sarah had to practically bite her tongue to keep from laughing at.

Two other scientists pulled her up and attempted to pin her down, but she easily slipped away from them. She went back down to the end of the hallway and gave them a look that dared them to come closer.

The group of scientists, there was about five or so, started to talk amongst themselves.

"Do you have the sleep inducer?" One asked another.

"Yeah," He answered, holding up a shot needle with a yellowish liquid in it.

"How are we going to inject it?" Another scientist asked, "It's not going to let us get near it."

'_Dang right it's not,' _Sarah thought.

"I say we should euthanize it," Said another scientist, it was the on that Sarah had jumped on,

"That thing almost ripped my throat out!"

"We can't euthanize it, Charles," One scientist said, "We can study it better if it's alive." Charles didn't seem too convinced.

"Okay," the first guy who talked said, "you two go that way," he pointed left, "and you two go that way," he pointed right, "I'll go down the middle. Move slowly." The scientist got into their positions and slowly started to walk forward.

'_Oh yeah,'_ Sarah though, _'cuz' I'm THAT stupid.'_ She casually walked forward, the scientists stopped, terrified of what she was going to do. Sarah walked right by them and went down to the other end of the hall.

"We're probably going to be here a while," one of the scientists said, looking at Sarah.

'_And you better get used to it,' _Sarah thought.

**Author's note: I know what you guys are thinking, "Man! Those are some DUMB scientists!" I know that there's no way that a scientist could be this stupid, but let's just say, for the sake of the story, that it's possible. Plus it's kinda funny to write about too. :)**


	15. Sarah’s got some splainin' to do

**Author's note: Hey guys! I'm majorly sorry that haven't update for so long! But here it is:**

It had been hours since Sarah had left; the gang was starting to get worried.

"Do you think she's in some kind of trouble," Stell asked.

"Knowing Sarah," Danny answered, "probably."

"Should we go look for her?" June asked, "There's a town nearby, that would be a good place to start."

"Sounds good," Danny said, "lead the way." June nodded as they walked outside.

"June," said Dale as he ran up beside her, "do you think Sarah's okay?"

"We hope so," June answered. All six of them took off into the sky as June led them to the town.

They landed near the outskirts of the town and walked the rest of the way. It looked fairly calm as they walked down the sidewalk. Maybe there was no reason to worry after all. And maybe goldfish barked.

They were walking by an electronics store that had about ten TV's in the window; all of which were tuned to a local news channel.

A picture on the screen caught Stell's attention. She stopped and looked; the picture was sort of blurry, but she could still recognize it.

"Guys!" she yelled excitedly, "check this out!" They gathered around to look at the window display.

"Is that?" Vince asked.

"It can't be," June said.

"Yeah," Danny said, "It's Sarah." They all rush inside to hear the story.

"Even the experts are stumped by this strange creature," the anchorman said, "but they are working on figuring this mystery out as we speak. The creature has been taken to a nearby science facility for further study."

"And in other news," The anchorman continued, "A local citizen has just celebrated her 102nd birthday."

"Come on," Danny said to the other as he led them back outside.

"Where are we going?" Vince asked.

"To find a library; we need to find out where that facility is," Danny replied.

Sarah was _really_ getting tired of this now. The scientists were still attempting to sedate her; they were huddled up, trying to come up with a plan. They broke apart, and moved towards her.

'_Haven't they already tried this about 100 times already?'_ Sarah thought. Four of the scientist ran forward and grabbed her, pinning her against the wall. Sarah snarled and snapped at them.

"Hurry!" One of the scientists yelled. The one with the shot needle ran up and tried to inject it into her neck. Sarah turned her head to face him, still snarling. Another one of the scientist's hands pushed her head against the wall so that she couldn't move it. Before she could do anything, Sarah felt a small sting in her neck as the scientist injected the sedater.

Almost instantly, her limbs refused to respond as everything went black.


	16. The Lab

**Author's note:** **Hey guys! Once again, sorry for the wait. But updated during the week has proved to be MUCH harder than I though, so from now on I'll probably stick to updating on the weekends. But enough of my boring blabber, on with the chapter!**

The group of scientists rushed into the lab. One had a furry, unconscious creature in his arms.

"Sorry we're late, there was…uh, a hold up," one of the scientists said as he joined his co-workers.

"We were to start the examination half an hour ago," Said one of the waiting scientists with a stern, flat voice. The creature was set on a metal table that was positioned in the middle on the room.

One scientist, a woman, picked up a syringe, "We'll need a blood sample to send to Lab 8," she said. She injected the needle and drew an ounce of blood.

"Take this to the lab," she instructed one of her co-workers; he nodded and went to do so.

"This is truly a strange creature," said a scientist, "It has a humanistic body structure, but with obvious canine features. Even stranger, it wears human clothing; perhaps it's some kind of race, maybe even an extraterrestrial."

"Most of the witnesses claimed that the creature had wings," Said a scientist, a bald guy,

"They also said that it flew."

"I find that highly unlikely," Replied another scientist, a tall man in his late thirties.

"It was mentioned in seventeen out of twenty-three reports," the bald scientist insisted.

"An animal with a body structure such as this would not be able to lift off the ground," the tall scientist argued. The two continued to go back and forth until the woman scientist interrupted them.

"Gentleman, please, this is no time for childish bickering," she said, "It would be far more effective to _see_ whether or not if the creature has wings." She approached the medal table and turned the creature over on its stomach. She quickly noticed the slit in the back of the creature's shirt. She ran her hand over its back; through the t-shirt material. She could feel the some kind of crease in the creature's skin.

"How strange," she said quietly.

"What is it?" asked the bald scientist.

"I'm not sure," she replied. She rolled up the back of the creature shirt and was genuinely surprised to see feathered, half-heart shape in its back. The shapes were outlined with a crease that went all the way around them.

The other scientists were just as surprised at the odd feature.

The woman scientist noticed something even stranger about the feathered forms: they both seemed to be incomplete. If they were wings, them what she was looking at were defiantly the primary feathers, which would be at the tips.

She also noticed how they didn't seem to connect to the body anywhere; and they _should_ be sticking out, but they were the same level as the rest of the creature's back.

"This is so strange," she said aloud, "it's like they aren't even full wings, just the ends."

"Perhaps they are folded," said one of the scientists. The woman scientist thought about it; it seemed pretty logical. She put her fingers in the crease that outline one of the wings, and pulled them upward. It unfolded some, but it was to long for her to unfold completely. She tried pulling outward on it, which proved far more effective. She had to step back some to stretch the limb to its full extant.

One of the scientists whistled a single note in awe.

"What would you say Dr. Sanders," the bald scientist said to the tall one in an almost boastful voice, "about seven feet?"

Dr. Sanders donned a face of defeat. "Quite," he agreed reluctantly.

"That would be about a fourteen foot wingspan," said another scientist from the back of the room, "that wouldn't be nearly enough to allow something that size to fly."

The woman scientist was about to agree, but something else grabbed her attention. The wing that she was holding outstretched was starting to move. She looked at the creature on the table; it was starting to wake up.

"It's waking up," she said as she let go of the wing.

"Impossible," said one of the scientists that had brought it in, "the sedation is supposed to last up to two hours; it hasn't even been one." But he was quickly proved wrong when the creature raised its head off the table and looked around.

Sarah was starting to come to; she could hear people talking very close by. She could feel that one of her wings was outstretched and tried to fold it.

"It's waking up," she heard a woman say.

"Impossible," someone replied, "the sedation is supposed to last up to two hours; it hasn't even been one."

Sarah raised her head and looked around; staring back at her was a room full of about nine or ten scientists. She sat up, pulling her shirt down, and hopped off the metal table that she was on.

A scientist started to walk towards her with a syringe, which she assumed was another sedater.

"_Oh no you don't," _she though as she looked for a way out. Seeing a door on the other side of the room, Sarah darted away from the syringe guy. She ran past a couple of scientists who tried to grab her. She slipped by them and threw the door open, probably breaking the glass window in it.

"_Oh well,"_ Sarah thought, _"not MY door."_ She was running down hallways at random, looking for a way out. Finally, she saw what must have been the door to the front of the building. Sarah ran as fast as her legs would take her. But right as she was about to reach the end of the hallway, the alarm went off and the medal security doors closed off the halls. One metal door dropped right in front of her, causing her to run head first into it.

She fell backwards onto the floor; the voices of more scientist surrounded her as, one again, the world faded to black.


	17. Confrontation

**Author's note: Well, thanks to the long weekend, I was able to write this chapter. And I do believe that a _certain _reviewer/proof reader will be very happy with it! :)**

Dr. Pepper (**An: What? Can't I have a sense of humor? :) **walked quietly down the corridor. He held a metal bowl of food that they had found to be highly nutritional. Though, to him, it looked like pre-chewed peas. He stopped at his destination: the room in which the newest scientific wonder was being held.

He looked in the window to make sure that she wasn't going to try and escape again. She was still lying, asleep, on the small bed in the corner.

Dr. Pepper opened the door quietly, so as to not wake her up. He closed the door and started across the room. He stopped when he heard a small noise; it had come from the furry, sleeping figure in the corner. As quietly as he possibly could, Dr. Pepper crept closer.

Once he was closer, he figured out what the noises were, they creature was kicking and muttering in her sleep. Dr. Pepper was awestruck; they know now that the creature was part human, but they never imagined that it could speak.

Her face twitched from whatever nightmare she was having.

Dr. Pepper set the bowl down on the floor as quietly as he could. The metal bowl made a small clank as it made contact with the hard floor; just enough to wake the sleeping creature.

She jumped to her feet and launched herself at him; still hallucinating from her nightmare.

Dr. Pepper found himself flat on the floor; staring wide-eyed into a snarling mouth of sharp teeth. Although, the creature seemed to realize that she was no longer dreaming, and let him up. She went back into the corner, coldly turning her back to him.

Dr. Pepper got back up and took a few seconds to regain himself. He cleared his throat, hoping to catch the creature's attention.

"I…" he started, though he felt stupid for talking to what looked so much like an animal.

"I brought you some food," he said after a few seconds. The creature looked at the bowl, then stubbornly turned her nose up at it.

"You could at least say Thank-you," Dr. Pepper continued, he could tell that she had heard him, but she refused to respond.

"I know you speak," he said in a matter-of-factly voice, "you mind as well drop the act." She flattened her canine-like ears in annoyance, but still said nothing.

"You're a very remarkable creature," Dr. Pepper said, still holding his one-sided conversation, "Are there others like you?" He noticed the creature tense.

"So there are?" he pressed, beginning to push his luck. The creature kept her back turned, but emitted a low, irritated growl.

"Are they nearby?" he asked casually, "perhaps we can bring them in for farther study." With that, the creature seemed to snap. She spun on her heels, grabbed him and pinned him against the wall.

"If you even _**THINK**_of bringing them into this," she snarled, "I will _personally_ make sure that you don't live past Friday!" Dr. Pepper could tell that she wasn't, in any way, exaggerating. He tried to appear calm, but the truth was, he was petrified with fear.

"And if you weren't about to wet yourself," she continued, "then I'd tell you about how they're probably going to rip you're guts out for bringing me here anyway."

She released him, letting him fall to the floor. Dr. Pepper stood up and attempted to regain himself.

The creature went back over to the corner and plopped down on the large dog bed they had given her.

"Would it be too much to ask for a real bed?" she asked, as if nothing had happened.

Dr. Pepper just stood there, staring at her.

"Hello?" she said, snapping her fingers as if to wake him from a trance.

"What _are_ you?" he asked, "_Who_ are you?"

"What, you haven't figured that out yet?" she asked sarcastically, "and here I thought science was the answer to everything."

"We found out that you're a human/wolf hybrid, and that you're DNA has been altered somehow. You have wings, and we also found out that someone made you like this on purpose," Dr. Pepper said, "But _why_?"

"Well, why do you think?" she asked.

"I have no idea," he answered, "but Charles, one of my co-workers, said that he think you were designed to be a weapon, and that you're dangerous. He also thinks that we should euthanize you."

"Maybe you should listen to that Charles guy," she said, "Except for that euthanizing me part, that wouldn't be so great."

"So who did this to you?" Dr. Pepper asked, "Do you always look like that? Can you fly?"

"Whoa! That's a whole bunch of nosey questions," she said, cutting him off.

"So, will I be getting any answers?" Dr. Pepper pushed.

"Yes, yes and non of you business," she replied, "happy?" Dr. Pepper thought for a moment.

"Do you have a name?" he asked.

"Yes, yes I do," she answered. Dr. Pepper waited.

"Could you tell me?" he asked after a few seconds.

"I suppose I could," she answered in the same, uninformative way.

"Will you?" Dr. Pepper asked, starting to get annoyed.

"I guess so," she said with a smirk, clearly amused.

"Now?" Dr. Pepper pressed.

"Sarah," she said simply.

"Sarah?" Dr. Pepper asked, not expecting that she'd actually tell him.

"Sarah," she confirmed with a nod. Dr. Pepper still had many questions that he wanted to be answered, but decided to hold his tongue for the moment.

"Very well…Sarah" he said, "I guess I'll be leaving now."

"Yeah," she said, "Go tell all your scientist buddies about your _big_ discovery. I'm sure they'll all be making me talk for 'em. It's like a dog that just figured out how to turn over a trash can, huh?"

By the time she had finished, Dr. Pepper had just closed the door. But he had heard what she had said, and, sadly, he knew she was right

**Author's note: Okay, right now, I'm wishing that I hadn't named the scientist "Dr. Pepper", because every time I type that, I laugh! It sort of screws up the mood of the chapter, but in a strangely humorous way. **


	18. Breakout

**AN: Hello my ever so faithful reads, (most of whom don't review, but still) sorry for the wait! I had a little writers block, but I just now got done with this chapter, I hope you like it! **

Sarah sat, bored out of her mind, in the almost featureless room. Just when she thought her head would explode with boredom, the door opened.

Sarah looked up to see an unfamiliar looking scientist; in one hand he held a syringe. She got ready to make a run for it, but never got a chance.

Just as the scientist was about to step foot in the room, something big and brown came out of nowhere, knocking him out of view.

Sarah stood up and ran into the hall. There, in the hallway, was a very familiar mutant.

"Vince!" Sarah said loudly in surprise, Vince was standing over the cowering scientist menacingly.

"Over here," said a voice, not too far behind her. Sarah turned and saw that the others were standing in the hall, looking very uncomfortable about their surroundings. She heard a pathetic whimper from the scientist as Vince continued to give him a deathly stare.

"Vince, just let the guy go," she said. Vince snarled at the scientist, but stepped to one side. The scientist got up and scurried away.

"Do you guys know the way out?" Sarah asked the others.

"We came in through the vents," Danny said, pointing to the uncovered air duct above them, "Couldn't risk being seen."

Just then, the alarm system went off.

"Come on," Sarah said, "let's get out of here."

They somehow all managed to get into the air duct without it breaking, and were crawling through a maze of metal.

"This way, it's not too far now," Danny said for about the ninth time.

"Danny," Stell said, "You said that five minutes ago."

"Yeah," he agreed, "but this time I mean it." Stell groaned.

"He said _that_ five minutes ago too," she mumbled to herself, causing Sarah, who was behind her, to giggle.

Four 'it's not that far now's later, they finally reached a vent that led outside. Danny kicked it open and they all piled out, happy to be free of the small air ducts.

"So," Danny said, "where to now?" They all looked at Sarah, who, until this point, hadn't really been thinking about it.

"Well," she said, "I'm sure the compound has already sent the guards here to look for us, so it's probably not a good idea to hang around." The others looked slightly disappointed; they liked it at the orchard. At least there they could sleep inside a house, and had an unlimited food source. Sarah felt a pang of guilt; this whole thing was her fault in the first place.

"I guess we should go get our stuff," Sarah said in a sorrowful voice.

"We brought it all with us," Danny said, picking up three backpacks that were on the ground, "just in case." He handed Sarah hers and gave one to June. Sarah noticed that her backpack felt heavier than before. She opened it up and saw that it was filled to the top with oranges.

"I guess we'll be eating these for a while, huh?" she said.

"We still have some canned food for when we run out of oranges," Danny explained, "We're set for at least a week and a half."

"Oh yeah," June said, she pulled something out of her pocket and handed it to Sarah, "It's a compass, I found it at the orchard house a while ago," she explained.

Sarah looked at the small compass, its little red needle pointed north, "I guess we'd better get going then, huh?"

She spread her wings and took off, hovering a few feet in the air to wait for the others. They mimicked her action, and soon the were off. It was starting to get dark and they would need a safe place to stay for the night.

**AN: And remember, the purple button to the bottom left is your friend! :)**


	19. Campfire Pro

**Author's note: What's this? I'm actually updating BEFORE Monday? Wow, that's a new one, huh? Well any ways, enjoy the chapter! :)**

Stell screamed and started running around, swatting at an imaginary bug on her head.

"There's a bug in my hair!" she screamed and she continued to run around. Danny, who had been poking Stell's hair with a stick, was trying to keep from laughing.

Sarah scoffed, "You are so mean," she said, getting up. She walked over to where Stell was now doing some kind of bug in my hair dance, and grabbed her wrist.

"Stell!" Sarah said, catching the eleven-year-old's, "there's no bug."

"Are you sure?" Stell asked, patting her head to be sure that there was nothing on it.

"I'm positive," Sarah answered. Danny burst out laughing, causing Stell to realize that it was just a mean joke.

"That was _not _funny," Stell said angrily, she started towards Danny. Danny, seeing the Stell's fury, jumped to his feet and made a run for it, still laughing.

Sarah grabbed Stell and held her back from chasing Danny. "Don't worry," Sarah said, "we'll get him back later." Stell nodded and walked back to where Vince was attempting to start a fire.

They had set up a camp in the woods; though none were all too happy about sleeping on the ground.

"Light already!" Vince commanded the pile of pine straw and sticks that he was standing over. He tried once again to light the stubborn kindling, but had no success.

"Can I help?" Dale asked.

"I don't think so," Vince said nicely, "We can't afford to use up more than a match a day."

"But-" Dale started, but Vince cut him off.

"How 'bout you help by getting some more sticks?" he said. Dale did what he was told, though he wasn't happy about it.

Dallas went to help his brother with gathering fire wood.

"I bet you could get the fire started in ten seconds," Dallas said as he picked up a twig.

"Yeah," Dale replied, kicking a rock along as he walked.

"You should go help," Dallas said, "I'll get the sticks."

Dale smiled big, "Thanks," he said.

"That's what brothers are for," Dallas replied as Dale went to help with the fire.

Vince had given up on the fire at this point. He stuffed the pack of matches back in his pocket and went to get an orange from one of the backpacks.

When he came back, he saw Dale adding sticks to a good sized fire.

"Whoa," Vince said in astonishment, "how'd you do that?"

"I'm good at making fires," Dale said proudly.

"With what?" Vince asked, "I had the matches in my pocket."

Dale giggled and said, "It's magic!" June, who had just heard Dale's last statement made her way over to the two.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"We have ourselves a little fire making pro," Vince said happily. Dale looked down at his feet like a child that had been caught doing something wrong.

"Really?" June asked, looking at Dale. Dale shoved his hands in his pocket and shifted feet nervously.

"Well," Vince said not seeming to notice Dale's look of guilt, "I'm going to hit the sack; it's been a long day."

"Yeah," June said, as he left. She walked a few feet away and sat, motioning Dale to do the same. Dale kept sat next to June, keeping his hands in his pockets.

"Dale," June said in a voice that was neither happy nor upset.

"I just wanted to help," Dale mumbled.

"Dale," June said in the same voice, "let my see your hand."

Dale hesitantly pulled his right hand out of his pocket and held it out. June took his hand by the wrist and turned it over, looking at his finger tips. They were singed and had ashes on them.

June signed, "Dale, what have I told you about using your extra power?" she said in a gentle voice.

"I'm sorry," Dale replied looked down, "I just wanted to help. And beside, it doesn't hurt that much anymore."

"It doesn't matter," June said, "Your fingers are still burned."

"But you and Dallas can use _your_ powers," Dale said, looking up at her.

"That's because our powers don't physically hurt us," June answered.

"It's not fair," the nine-year-old declared, crossing his arms, "what's the point of having fire powers if it just burns my hands?"

June looked down him, "I'm sorry kiddo," she said, "but there's really nothing I can do." Dale nodded, looking down at his burnt finger tips.

"Come on," June said, "let's go put something on those." Dale nodded and the two got up.

**Author's note: Sorry for cutting it off there, but I didn't feel like writing anymore...REVIEW!!**


	20. Night Watch

**Author's note: Ok, so I felt bad for leaving all my wonderful readers hanging until today, so I wrote this chapter with an extra touch of emotion! With luck, you will be freaked out by the end! And sorry for the wait :)**

Danny stood, leaning against a tree, facing the dark, silent woods. Sarah had made him do the first night watch as punishment for freaking Stell out.

Danny chuckled to himself, "_Maybe I should put a real bug in Sarah's hair_." He looked over at Sarah's sleeping form on the ground.

"_On second thought,"_ Danny thought to himself, "_I choose life._"

He looked up at the moon, which was now high up in the sky, wishing he had a wrist watch so he could at least know what time it was.

Danny sat down and picked up a stick. He started to draw in the dirt out of boredom. He was just putting the finishing touches on a goldfish cracker style fish, when he heard a small pop from somewhere behind him.

Danny turned and looked around the tree that he as leaning against. Seeing nothing, he turned back around, assuming that one of the other had just kicked something in their sleep.

A few seconds later, he heard the same sound. Only this time it came in three rapid pops. He got up and turned around; still Danny saw nothing.

"_That wasn't one of the others_," Danny thought to himself, "_That as something else_."

Again, he heard the mysterious pop, but only once this time. Danny was starting to freak out. He went to where Sarah was asleep, knelt down and shook her.

"Come on Sarah," Danny whispered, "wake up." But Sarah remained asleep.

Danny went over to Vince and tried to shake him awake.

"Vince, come on man, wake up!" Danny half whispered half yelled, but Vince simply laid there.

Now starting to panic, Danny went over to June and nudged her with his foot. She didn't wake, but Danny noticed something on her neck. He bent over and pulled it off. Looking at it closer, he saw it was a dart. He assumed that the others had them too.

Danny looked into the dark forest that surrounded them; he could almost feel the presence of an intruder.

"I know you're out there!" Danny yelled into the darkness, "Come out and fight you coward!"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a figure appeared. Danny stepped back and almost fell; the sight of the creature sent a chill down his spine.

In the dim light of the dying fire, Danny could see the creature's greenish, scaly skin and the eyes that looked like they were mounted on two cones that stuck out of its face.

The thing sneered at him and held up a dart gun. The last thing Danny saw was the trigger being pulled and the creature disappearing into thin air as he fell back, unconscious.

**Author's note: Well, I don't know about you, but I'm a little freaked write now, and I was the one who wrote it! By the way, the "W" key on my keyboard is being stupid, so if a word is missing a W, don't be afraid to tell me :) Oh, and if you push the little purple button to the bottom left of the screen, you'll get three wishes! **


	21. A New and Unpleasant Place

**Author's note: Wow! Three chapters in one night?! What can I say? I was on a roll :) But enough of my blabbering, on with the story!**

When Danny awoke, he found himself in a cage. He looked around the room and almost had a panic attack.

The room around him looked almost exactly like the room they were kept in back at Compound 24! The only difference was that it was bigger and had a weird looking lizard guy guarding the door.

Danny looked at the lizard guy, recognizing him as the one from before. He wondered if this was some new type of guard.

In the light of the room, Danny could get a better look at the strange creature. It was possibly one of the ugliest hybrids that he had seen yet. It had a weird shaped head with slits for a nose and a hole on each side of its head for ears. Its eyes stuck out from its head and seemed to look in every direction. It had a long tail that matched its green, scaly skin.

The lizard guy, seeing that Danny had woken up, pressed a button on the wall behind him.

Danny heard movement in the cages next to him, and saw that the others were starting to wake up.

Stell, a few cages down, let out a terrified squeak when she saw the lizard guy. The lizard guy looked at her with one of his eyes and sneered at her; his teeth looked like sharp little triangles in his mouth.

Vince, being the protective big brother type, snarled at the scaly hybrid.

Before anything else could be done, a scientist walked into the room. Behind him were a couple of good old fashion tiger hybrid guards.

One of the guards pointed at Danny, "You, boy," he said, "who is your leader?"

Danny gave him a dirty look, "None of your business," he said. The scientist who had spoken clenched his fist; it was obvious that he had a short temper.

"One more chance boy," he said, "_Who is you leader_?"

Danny looked the scientist straight in the eye, "I ain't tellin,'" he said.

"Take him away," the scientist said to the two tiger guards.

"Wait!" Sarah said as the two guards started forward.

"Sarah," Danny said looking at her, "don't."

"I'm your leader," Sarah said to him, "It's my responsibility."

"You're going to get hurt," Danny said back to her, "they might even _kill_ you."

"It's _my_ responsibility," Sarah said.

"So you pick _now_ to be responsible?!" Danny practically yelled. The scientist cleared his throat loudly to regain their attention.

"So _you_ are their leader?" the scientist said in a calm voice.

"Yeah," Sarah replied in a _what's it to ya'_ type voice, "I am."

"Very well," the scientist said, "take _her_ away." The two guards stepped forward; one opened Sarah's cage, while the other quickly snapped a collar around her neck so that she couldn't morph.

As soon as she was out of the cage, Sarah began to put up a fight. Her struggles didn't last very long though; one of the guards took out a taser and zapped her with it.

Sarah cried out and fell limp, but continued to annoy the guards by trying to make herself heavy as they drug her out of the room.


	22. Interrogation

Sarah was taken to an empty, white room; much like every other room that all the compounds seemed to have. In the middle of the room, there was a table and two chairs.

The guards brought her in and sat her down in one of the chairs and fastened restraints to her arms and legs. Sarah gave them dirty looks as they left.

A few seconds later, the same scientist as before walked into the room. He sat down in the chair on the other side of the table. Few a moment, the two just sat there, staring each other down.

"Who is assisting you?" the scientist asked in a forceful voice.

"What?" Sarah asked, confused.

"Don't play dumb," the scientist said, "you wouldn't have lasted a day in the outside world without someone helping you. That is how all Compound experiments are designed."

"That's stupid," Sarah said, "Why would you want a bunch of helpless sissies for henchmen? After all, that _is_ what you appear to be using us for."

"The reason for this is so that our experiments don't turn on us," the scientist answered heatedly; this guy really had a short fuse.

"And yet here I am with six other kids, all who have turned on you _and_ have lasted longer than a day in the outside world."

"Which leads me to believe that someone is helping you," the scientist said.

"We don't have anyone helping us, okay? We made it all on our own, is that so hard to believe?"

"You're a terrible liar," the scientist said in a calmer voice.

"You're a terrible truth seeker," Sarah said, "and besides, if I was lying, then you wouldn't be able to tell."

"We are very serious about keeping our organization secret," the scientist said, getting mad again, "If someone from outside it knows about us, then we must find that person and dispose of them immediately."

Sarah laughed, "Wow, that's a great reason as to why I should rat out someone who was helping us!"

The scientist's face started to turn red as his anger boiled; a vain in his forehead started to bulge out as he mashed his teeth together.

Sarah looked at him and tried to stifle her laughter, but couldn't help but snicker at how stupid the scientist looked at the moment.

"I have had enough with you!" her yelled, he took a walky-talky from his pocket and yelled into it, "Guards! Come get this insolent little monster!"

The guards came in the room; Sarah stopped laughing at snarled at them.

"What do we do with her?" One guard asked.

"Take her to the drill room," the scientist answered."

"Should I get 9924?" the same guard asked.

"No," the scientist answered with a sneer, "I want to teach this disrespectful cretin some manners my self. Put a wing restraint on her, leave the collar on and chain her." The guards nodded and did as they were told.


	23. Anger Management Issues

Sarah was taken to a huge, metal walled room; she recognized it as a drill room.

The guards had locked a metal band onto her so that she couldn't unfurl her wings. It went up under her armpits and was only a few inches long.

Then one guard drug her to the back wall of the room where a hook stuck out from the wall. He held her down as the other guard hooked a chain onto her collar and hooked the other end to the wall.

The guards then released her and left the room just as the scientist from before entered. He held a baseball bat in his hands.

"Coward," Sarah growled as the scientist came closer, "at least at Compound 24 they gave me half a chance to defend myself."

The scientist sneered at her, "Well this is Compound 10, and you don't have the right to defend yourself here." He hit her full force in the head with the bat, causing her to fall.

"Do you really think that I'll respect you after this?" Sarah asked him, wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth and standing up, "Well I'm not."

"Silence!" the bat hit her in the head again, this time she kept her balance, "You will not speak unless I give you permission to do so!" the scientist yelled, his face was red again.

Sarah took a lunge at him, but was stopped by the chain. She was stuck in the head by the bat again, the force of the swing made her fall.

She sat up on her knees and spit the blood out of her mouth; she looked straight at the scientist. "Scumbag," she growled.

The bat came down again, this time it fell across her back, making her fall onto her stomach.

The scientist hit her repeatedly on the back, her sensitive wings taking most of the blows.

Sarah rolled over and grabbed the end of the bat. The red faced man kicked her in the side, making her let go of his weapon. He hit her in the face, making her head fall back.

The scientist, who now appeared to be in a fit of manic rage, started kicking her in the stomach repeatedly.

Sarah curled up into a ball and tried to cover her head, though it didn't stop the mad man from kicking at her.

The scientist's blows mainly hit her arms and legs, though a few times, they hit her face and stomach.

Finally, the kicking slowly stopped as the scientist appeared to wear himself out. Sarah uncurled herself, but remained on the floor, too sore to get up.

The scientist bent down and said, "Behave like that again, and your little friends will be next."

"You won't touch them," Sarah growled.

"Oh yeah?" the scientist answered, "and who's going to stop me? _You_?" He chuckled to himself as he left the room.

"Guards" he said as he walked out the door, "take her to her cage; let the other see what will happen if they get in our way."

The guards came in and unchained her; one removed her wing restraint and picked her up.

Sarah winced in pain at the movement; she dreaded the others reaction when they saw her like this.

Danny knew the others were really starting to worry; he knew he was. Sarah had been gone for almost three hours now.

Just then, a guard walked in carrying a reddish purple which he assumed was a living being. The guard put what he was carrying in the cage next to him; Sarah's cage.

Danny could just about feel his stomach drop to the floor. He looked over to Vince's cage, which was on the other side of Sarah's.

Vince was staring wide-eyed at the being that was lying motionless in Sarah's cage.

"What is it?" Stell asked, trying to look around Vince's cage.

Vince purposely blocked her view, "It's just another experiment," he lied; he knew exactly what it was.

"Sarah?" Danny whispered so that the younger kids wouldn't hear him, "Sarah, come on. Do something." Sarah lifted her head slowly and looked at him; her face was bruised and swollen.

Danny almost felt sick at the sight; it had been a long time since Sarah had looked that bad. Even when she had almost bled to death after escaping Compound 24 she didn't look _that_ messed up.

"What happened?" Vince asked quietly.

Sarah spat some blood out of her mouth and said slowly between breaths, "That guy…has major…anger management…issues."

"_He_ did this?" Danny asked surprised, "how?"

"I'll explain later," Sarah said, "I'm tired."

"Okay," Danny said, "get some rest. I'm in no hurry."

Sarah nodded and closed her eyes; she was out like a light.

Danny looked back worriedly at Vince, who looked just as worriedly back. Some how, they were going to have to find a way though all this.

**Author's note: Wow, don't you just want to kick that scientist guy in the nuts? I sure do! But don't worry, I'll find some way to kill him off before this story is over :)**


	24. Medical Ward

**Author's note: Wow, this chapter is longer than the usual :) But, the story is only about 2/3 of the way through, so I still have a lot more to write! Though, I have decided that there will be a third story, I'm not sure how long it's gonna be, but there _will_ be new characters in it.**

About fifteen minutes later, another scientist came in the room; this time it was a woman. Behind her was a guard who was so tall that he had to duck his head to go through the doorway.

The woman walked over to Sarah's cage and looked in. Reaching forward, she tapped Sarah's arm until she woke up.

Sarah opened her eyes and looked up. The scientist smiled slightly at her and stood back as the guard unlocked the cage.

Danny growled at them threateningly. The guard ignored him, but the scientist looked over at him.

"Don't worry," she said in a gentle and unexpectedly kind voice, "We're just taking her to the medical ward."

Danny was taken aback by this; he was used to the scientists just ignoring him. He looked over at Vince; he was watching the woman suspiciously, as if it were some sort of trick.

Danny turned and watched as the scientist left. The guard followed her; Sarah hung loosely in his arms.

"Vince," June said from a few cages down, "that wasn't just another experiment was it?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"No," Vince said, "it wasn't."

Dr. Leevy stood up as Dr. Lenton walked in with a guard behind her. He walked over to them as the guard laid a battered looking experiment down on one of the hospital beds.

"What happened to her?" he asked, looking at the bruised up girl.

"Dr. Wallace decided that she needed to be disciplined," Dr. Lenton said flatly.

"I see," Dr. Leevy said, "what should we do with her?"

"Well," Dr. Lenton replied, "she doesn't seem to have a concussion, and I doubt she has any broken bones, but I'll have to run a few tests to make sure that she doesn't have any internal bleeding."

"Is there anything I can do?" Dr. Leevy asked.

"Not until I run those tests," Dr. Lenton said, "Though I _did_ send Tony to feed 55604 about twenty minutes ago. You could go see what's taking him so long."

Dr. Leevy nodded and left the room.

Dr. Lenton filled a syringe with a minor sleep inducer and injected it into the bruised up experiment.

Sarah awoke on the same hospital bed she had gone to sleep on. She looked around and saw the woman scientist looking at something on a computer screen.

Sarah saw the same guard as before sitting in a chair in the corner looking bored. Sarah laid her head back down and stared at the ceiling, wondering how long she would be there.

A few minutes later, the man scientist from before came in with a guard following behind him. The guard wasn't morphed, which was odd because every time Sarah ever saw a guard, they were almost always morphed.

The lady scientist turned around and saw them.

"What took you two so long?" she asked.

"When I went to see what was taking Tony so long," said the man scientist, "I found him with 55604 clamped on his arm."

The guard held up his bloody arm; long, deep cuts ran all the way up to his elbow. The cuts were crooked and jagged, obviously made from a set of large claws.

"I had the sedate 55604 to get him off," the male scientist said. Sarah heard the guard sitting in the corner chuckle under his breath.

"I hate that thing," the guard, Tony, said, "It keeps trying to mess with my head. I swear, one of these days-"

"That's enough," the lady scientist said, cutting him off, "I'm sure something must have provoked his attack." She looked at Tony in an accusing manner.

"I didn't do jack to that thing!" Tony exclaimed.

"Well I'm sure that calling him 'that thing' doesn't help either," the woman scientist said as she started to clean the blood off his arm.

"And calling it by a number is gonna help?" Tony said, "Or are you gonna name _it_ too?"

"Well," the woman scientist said, "according to our study, giving to guards real names helped them to act more human."

"But _that's_ why ninety-five percent of the Compound won't do it," the man scientist said, "They want them to vicious."

"Well," the woman scientist replied, "the only reason the director let _us_ do it was because we only do research for making more efficient guards."

"Then why's 55604 even here?" Tony asked as the woman scientist wrapped his arm with gauze.

"They were hoping to make him a guard," she answered, "but it didn't work out."

"What about _them_," Tony said, motioning to Sarah.

"They were found outside the compound," said the woman, "Which reminds me, I got the test results."

She handed her roll of gauze to the man scientist, "Dr. Leevy can finish take care of your arm," she said.

Dr. Leevy took the gauze and started wrapping the guard's arm as the woman scientist went back to the computer.

After reading the information on the screen, she walked over to Sarah's bed.

"It's not as bad as it seems," she said, "The worst is severe bruising; she should heal fairly quick."

"So what do we do with her?" Dr. Leevy asked as he finishing wrapping up the guard's arm.

"Just keep her here until tomorrow" the woman said, "I'm sure it would be better than sleeping in a cage."

Dr. Leevy nodded and left the room; the woman stayed behind for a little while, but she left the room too. The guard, Tony, had left as soon as his arm was taken care of. This left Sarah alone with the other guard who was asleep in his chair.

Soon, Sarah's eyes grew heavy as she drifted off to sleep.

**Author's note: I know what your thinking: "Wow! Nice scientists?" And even some not so jerky guards, well, at least I thought so. Well, they'll be not so jerky later on anyways. I don't think this chapter was as well written as it could have been, but it'll do. I also have something planned for the not so distant chapters that may just knock your socks off (if anyone even says that anymore) Well, I guess that's it. And remember kids, the reviewing is good for the soul! :)**


	25. A Stroll Down Memory Lane

**Author's note: Sooo sorry this took so long! But this chapter was really hard to write for some reason. But anyway, here it is! Enjoy!**

Danny woke up from a very restless sleep. It was hard to rest when he was stuck in a cage.

He heard Vince groan tiredly from his cage. Looking towards him, Danny couldn't help but snicker.

"What?" Vince asked, looking at Danny questioningly. Danny motioned to his face where the cage bars had left an imprint from where Vince had laid his face against them.

Vince felt his face, "What?" he asked again.

"Dude," Danny laughed, "You looked like a zebra!"

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Vince asked, still irritable from his lack of sleep. Danny only continued to laugh.

"Man, forget you," Vince said, looking over to the others. They too were waking up from a bad sleep.

"I feel like I've been hit by a truck," Stell complained as she pulled her hair back in a ponytail.

"Speaking of hit by a truck," Danny said, after getting over his laughter, "I wonder where Sarah is."

Sarah woke up hungry and sore. She hadn't eaten since last night; and she had barely eaten anything then. Sarah put 'Raid the compound's kitchen' on her mental check list.

The guard sitting in the chair in the corner looked up and saw her. He reached over and pressed a button that was built into the wall.

Sarah knew that the button called a scientist to come in; she just hoped it would be one of the nicer ones from before.

But instead, Dr. Wallace walked in. He was flanked by two guards who were both fully morphed.

Sarah automatically snarled at the hated scientist.

"Still have some fight left in you I see," Dr. Wallace said, "I guess we'll have to do something about that." Sarah felt a rush of fear tremor through her; she remembered Dr. Wallace saying that if she disobeyed him again, the others would take the punishment.

"Take her to section B; put her in any cage," Dr. Wallace said. Sarah almost let out a sigh of relief, knowing that the other would remain unharmed for now, but caught herself.

Sarah sat up slowly and hopped off the bed; she winced at the pain of her lingering bruises. Two of the guards grabbed her by the arms from behind and forced her out of the room.

They took her to a different room, though, on could hardly tell since the interior all looked the same, white. The only difference was that this room had cages instead of medical equipment.

The guards picked a cage at random and stuffed her inside.

"Leave her here," Dr. Wallace instructed, "she is allowed no human contact, food, or water for the next three days."

Dr. Wallace bent over and sneered at her through the cage bars, "Let's see how tough you are then." Dr. Wallace turned and left the room at a brisk pace; the guards walked out behind him.

Sarah curled up in her cage; her stomach was already hurting with hunger. Sarah thought back to the last time she had even eaten a decent meal.

The Phillips house was the first thing that came to her mind. Although her stay there was all too short, it was probably the best time of her life.

As far back as she could remember, Sarah had been neglected, beaten, and mistreated. She remembered meeting Danny. Sarah had been about three or four years old, the scientists at Compound 24 had injected her with the human/animal hybrid mutation serum and were trying to get her morph.

They had put her in the drill with another experiment that had recently been injected; hoping that the two would start a fight with each other. It was a little boy, about her age, with tan-brown skin and almost black hair.

For ten minutes straight, they had just stood there and stared at each other in fear. One would jump whenever the other moved; but neither of them morphed. Finally, the scientists sent a guard in to scare them into morphing.

The guard chased them around, not aloud to actually attack them. The two of them were running around aimlessly when the guard had grabbed the young boy by the back of his shirt and hoisted him into the air, shaking him.

The boy, terrified of course, started screaming for help. Sarah stopped running and saw the guard terrorizing the boy. She wanted to help, but Sarah knew that there was no way she could take on a guard.

The mutation serum started to take effect as she desperately searched for a way to free the boy from the guard's menacing hold. To Sarah, it felt like flipping a switch in the back of her head.

For about two seconds, her body had gone completely numb. Then, without any warning, a burning pain tore through her. Every inch of her had felt like it was on fire.

Sarah had fallen to the floor, screaming and writhing in pain. She looked at her hands, almost positive that she would see that they had burst into flames. But instead she saw that she was growing fur and claws.

She screamed in both pain and horror as she morphed for the first time. The guard had released the boy, who had crawled into the corner and curled into the fetal position, and started toward her.

Sarah held her legs to her chest so tightly, that her new claws punctured holes in her skin. But, after what seemed like forever, the burning pain finally started to ease away.

Sarah slowly stood and looked up at the guard towered over her. The guard sneered and stepped aside as a group of three scientists came in.

They watched as she shakily got to her feet. They exchanged quiet comments, one told the guard to take her to be examined. Like every other experiment, newly mutated ones were to be examined to make sure that they took to the serum properly.

If not, they were to be 'put down'.

After Sarah had been taken out of the drill room, she didn't see the boy again for a few days.

The next time they met, Sarah had been scheduled for wing grafting. She sat in her cage, fidgeting nervously. The boy lay motionless on his stomach in the cage beside her. He had taken his shirt off because the fabric bothered his new wings.

Sarah looked at the folded flaps of feathers on his back. They were jet black and extended almost down to his waste line. She wasn't sure how big his wings would be if he unfolded them, but she knew that hers would be about the same size.

The boy stirred and moaned in pain.

Sarah gulped nervously, and built up her courage to speak to the boy, "D- do they hurt?" she asked quietly. This was the first time she had ever really spoken to another experiment.

"Yeah," the boy answered, his voice strained with pain as he sat up, "not as much as morphing for the first time though."

"You morphed too?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah," he replied, "but I didn't look like you. I look like one of the tiger guards when I'm morphed."

"Oh," Sarah said, then a thought struck her, "do you want to be a guard when you get older?"

"No!" the boy exclaimed, "They're jerks." He looked at her with questioning eyes, "Do _you?_"

Sarah shook her head, "No," she said, "I want to run away from here."

"Cool," the boy said, "Can I come?"

"Sure," Sarah said with a smile, "you can help."

The boy smiled, "I'm Danny," he said, "What's _your_ name?"

"Sarah," she replied.

The two talked for a while, but eventually, the guards took Sarah away to have her wings grafted into her back. But from that day on, she and Danny had been best friends. They had played like best friends, playfully teased each other like best friends, and had gotten in and out of trouble as best friends would.

Sarah, who had completely forgotten about her current predicament, smiled as she reminisced about all their past shenanigans, mayhem, and chaos they had caused.

Thinking about the sticky situations that they had gotten out of, and knowing that there was now _seven_ of them, Sarah knew that somehow, some way, they would get out of this one too.

**Author's note: So, whatcha' think? Tell me! Review people! :D**


	26. Starved

**Author's note: Hey peoples, sorry for the long wait! But now I'm back to writing like crazy. Hope you enjoy the chapter! **

Sarah didn't know how long she had been there, but it felt like an eternity. Burning pain ran through every inch of her body at the slightest movement.

Her body had pretty much shut down from lack of food to give it energy. Which meant Sarah still had a few of her bruises.

She had done almost nothing but sleep for the past to days. She couldn't lift her head if she wanted to, and she could barely keep her eyes open. Though, she opened them as wide as possible at the sound of someone entering the room.

Sarah heard the person cross the room as they approached her cage. The cage door squeaked open and a pair of strong, scale covered arms lifted her up. Sarah stared, practically unconscious, up at the face of the lizard guard.

The guard's expression was almost one of pity as he looked back at the limp, boney girl.

Then as someone else came in the room, the guard's face suddenly went blank, with no emotion at all.

Sarah heard an all too familiar voice. "Take her back to where the others are being stored," they said; it was none other than Dr. Wallace.

***

If Danny hadn't been in a cage, he'd be pacing; him and the others where practically out of their minds with worry.

"It's been three _days!_" Danny exclaimed, "She would have been better by now."

"Three days in this place," Vince said, "I wouldn't be surprised if she came back _green_. Who knows what kind of sick, twisted experiments they could be performing on her."

"Gee, thanks buddy," Danny said with heavy sarcasm, "you really know how to make a person feel better don't cha'?"

"Vince," Stell said with a quiet voice, "Do you think Sarah is ok?"

"I think she's fine," Vince said, trying to make his voice sound convincing like Sarah had done many times, "she's tough like that."

There couldn't have been a worse time in the world for what happened next; the lizard guard came into the room with a boney figure in his arms.

He gently set the fragile person in the cage Sarah was kept in. Danny stared in horror at the body that lay limp on the floor of the cage; he knew it was Sarah.

Stell let out a gasp as June looked shocked. The twins, who were in the last two cages, looked confused. They couldn't see what was going on. Vince felt almost sick as he stared at Sarah.

Sarah just laid there, her eyes half open and gazing blankly at the wall in front of her.

"Sarah?" Danny said, "Sarah?" Danny reached through the bars of his cage and into Sarah's; he moved her head so that she was looking at him.

"Sarah? Please say something." Sarah closed her eyes and let out a weak moan. Danny drew his arm back into his cage and just stared at his friend. This was the worst she had ever looked in years. She wasn't just boney, she was almost skeletal.

"I bet it was that Wallace guy," Vince growled, "I swear, if I get out of this cage, I'll kill him!"

A second later, a woman scientist hurried into the room; the same lady as before.

"Oh my," she said to herself as she started to open Sarah's cage. Jus as she was reaching in, Danny lunged toward her and grabbed her arm through the bars of his cage.

The women jumped in surprise, but couldn't break away from Danny's crushing grip. Her arm was starting to turn purple were Danny was holding it, when a guard came in. He walked over to Danny's cage and zapped him with a taser through the bars. Danny instantly released his grip on the scientist's arm, but continued to give her a dirty look.

"I'm just taking her to the medical ward," the women scientist said as she rubbed her bruised arm.

"That's what you said before," Danny replied angrily, "and _this_ was how she came back."

"Please let me take her," the woman said, "I only want to help."

Danny growled, "Just give her food and go away."

"You don't understand," the woman continued, "she needs to be put on a feeding tube, and I can't bring it in here."

The guard, apparently tired of waiting, moved forward and reached into Sarah's cage. Danny grabbed the guard's arm through the bars. This time he morphed, digging his claws into the guard's arm.

Without any hesitation, the guard whipped out the taser and zapped Danny with a full charge of electricity.

Danny screamed, releasing his grip, and fell back against the bar on the opposite side of the cage. He snarled and rubbed the taser mark on his neck. The guard didn't react as he took Sarah out of her cage.

The scientist and the guard left with Sarah once again; who knows what would happen to her this time.


	27. A Thought to Live or Die by

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Author's note: Hey peoples, sorry this chapter is so short. But I made up for it by adding a little preview to the thrid and final story of this series! :D

Sarah was lying in a medical bed, hooked up to a feeding tube. She knew she would probably be there a while. She was staring at the ceiling with nothing to do but think.

She remembered the first time she had ever been severely hurt. Sarah had been about four and a half years old and had already learned how to fly. The scientists had decided that she was ready to fight in the drill room. They had her pinned against an older experiment; a guard in training.

Sarah had only lasted about five minutes with him before they had to end the drill. The guard in training had slashed her across the stomach with his claws; luckily, the cuts weren't very deep.

After she had been bandaged up, Sarah was put back in her cage. Danny, who was about four at the time, started to freak out. He asked her if she was okay just about every five minutes, and he didn't take an eye off her for a second.

Sarah laughed to herself about how overly worried Danny would get. Now that she thought about, he _still_ got overly worried; he just didn't show it as much.

Then Sarah wondered if they would every escape the Compound. Even if they got away from Compound 10, would they be able to get away from the Headquarters? And how were they ever going to shut down a whole organization run by a bunch of cruel geniuses?

Sarah thought about the giant task that lie ahead of them. But then again, they had come this far, so why not keep going? Even if they got caught, what else could these people do to them? They had already been tortured their whole lives, what more could possibly happen to them? They had everything to gain and nothing to lose, and _that's_ what gave them the advantage. After all, nothing was more dangerous than a bunch of reckless kids who had nothing to lose and wouldn't stop until they won or died… which ever happens to comes first.

* * *

**Author's note: Ok, so I replaced both of the character's names with numbers. It also might sound weird because I didn't use the words "he" or "she". So your gonna have to wait until the actual story to find out who the characters are! :D**

1 looked over 2's shoulder the see what 2 was looking at.

"There's nothing there," 1 said, slightly confused.

"No, there isn't," 2 said in a flat voice. Without even looking up, 2 grabbed 1 and held 1 in a headlock. Before 1 could even react, 2 planted the device on the back of 1's neck. 1 suddenly limp, seeming to be unconscious. 2 let go of 1's head, letting 1 fall to the ground.

2 bent over and arranged 1's hair so that it covered the device. 2 then stood up straight and looked at 1.

"_get up"_ 2 mentally commanded 1. 1 got to their feet, and with a blank look in their eyes, awaited 2's next command.

2 stared at 1 for a moment then sighed, "I'm sorry," 2 said. Then 2 sent another mental command.

"_Follow me back to the camp_," 2 took off, almost wishing to be struck by lightning. 1 followed as commanded, now completely under 2's control.


	28. Bridges Burn and Tables Turn

**Whoo! This is a long one! What can I say, I was in the writing mood. Unfortunately, when I'm on a roll like that, I tent to make a lot of of mistakes. Fortunately, I have me a proof reader! So have at it! :D**

A few days later, Sarah was returned to her cage. She almost looked the same as before, except she was still under weight.

"We've got to find a way out of here," Danny said as soon as the guards left, "I think we have a good shot right now."

"Why?" Sarah asked.

"They've been taking us out for more interrogation" Danny explained, "They've just been going down the row. They've got Stell right now."

Sarah looked around Danny and Vince's cages, and sure enough, Stell's was empty.

"You got a plan yet?" Sarah asked no one in particular.

"Nope" Danny answered.

The room went quiet for a moment as everyone racked their brain for an escape plan.

"Wait" June said from a few cages down, "I think I got something." She turned to the twins, and, talking in a low voice, said "Dale, remember how I told you not to use your extra power?"

"Yeah," Dale said.

"Well, now is your chance to use it," June said.

***

The guards entered the room and walked straight to June's cage. They unlocked it and took her off to be questioned. They returned about half an hour later.

The guards walked over to Dallas's cage and unlocked it. Dallas pressed as far back into the cage as her could so that the guard would have to reach all the way in.

The guard growled in annoyance and started to reach towards Dallas, but he didn't even get his arm half way in the cage before he screamed in pain.

The guard jerked his arm back. On it, was a hand shaped burn.

Dale quickly pulled his hand back into his own cage so that Dallas could move forward. Dallas lunged forward and darted out of his cage, right past the guard.

He ran to the first cage in his sight, which happened to be Vince's. Dallas quickly unlocked Vince's cage and threw the door open.

Vince lunged at the guard, and being the tallest in the group, easily knocked him down.

Dallas quickly unlocked the rest of the cages, releasing the others. He had just let Sarah out when more guards rushed into the already crowded room.

Dallas screamed as a guard lifted him off his feet by the back of his shirt. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their eyes to the flailing child. The guard held Dallas up high, seemingly oblivious to his struggling.

"What is going on in here," said a dreadfully familiar voice, it belonged to none other that Dr. Wallace.

Vince, who had already threatened to kill Dr. Wallace, snarled and took a step forward but an arm blocked him.

"Don't do it man," Danny said, holding his arm in front of Vince, "It's not worth it."

"Who let all of them out?" Dr. Wallace asked in an angry voice, "Was it _this_ rat?!" He turned and looked at Dallas with a menacing expression.

"You leave him alone!" Sarah yelled at the man. Dr. Wallace turned and looked at her; an almost pleasant looking smile appeared on his face.

"Ah, I see you have recovered well," he said in a nice tone, "what a shame."

"I swear," Sarah said, anger dripped lethally from her voice as she ignored Dr. Wallace's comment, "if you touch _one_ hair on his head, I will kill you."

"You mean this head?" Dr. Wallace asked, as he ruffled Dallas's hair, "this head right here?" Sarah lunged forward, but the guards restrained her.

"That's what I thought," Dr. Wallace said in a smooth tone. He looked directly at the guard standing next to him, Sarah recognized him as the lizard man, and said in a flat voice, "Kill her."

The other five automatically moved forward, but they found that they too were being restrained by guards.

Sarah growled, glaring at Dr. Wallace with a dagger-like stare. The room was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop as the lizard guard reached for the gun in his holster. He was about to take it out when he stopped.

"No," he said with a quiet voice.

"What?" Dr. Wallace said, drawing his attention away from Sarah to look at the guard.

"I said no," the guard said, louder this time, "I'm tired of taking orders from you."

"Excuse me?!" Dr. Wallace said in a loud voice.

"You hear me," the guard said, almost yelling this time, "I'm tired of taking orders from you and I'm sick of you pushing me around like I'm a mop!"

"You will obey my orders!" Dr. Wallace yelled, his face turning red, "You will do exactly what I told you or else I-,'' he was cut off.

"What?! What are you gonna do?!" the guard yelled, "I'm bigger than you, I'm stronger than you, and I've got a whole roomful of people who I'm hate your guts as much as I do!" Dr. Wallace looked around the room. All the guards were looked right back at him, and they didn't look too happy.

"Control yourself!" he commanded the guard, still trying to handle the situation.

"I'm not taking orders from the likes of _you_ anymore," the guard said. He turned and looked at the other guards in the room and said, "Kill him." The guards happily released whoever they were holding back and stepped forward.

Dr. Wallace stepped back, a horrified expression on his face, "Security!" he yelled out the door.

The guards only laughed at him, one yelled, "We _are_ security!" Dr. Wallace turned and ran, the guard at his heals.

He ran into the first room he came to, the control room, and shut the door behind him. He sighed in relief as he leaned against the door.

Suddenly, the door flew open, sending him flying in the sector control panel. Alarm started to blare as he slammed into the wall sized computer, mashing all kinds of buttons and controls.

The guards gathered around him, identical sneers on their faces, Dr. Wallace knew this was the end for him.

***

Sarah picked Dallas off the floor from where the guard had dropped him. She jumped as alarms suddenly went off. Every cage in the room that wasn't already open flew open automatically.

"Someone must have pushed the auto-release button," Danny said from behind Sarah.

"Yeah," Sarah replied, we'd better get out of here. She put Dallas down and turned to look at the others. "Everyone okay?" she asked. They all nodded. "Good, then let's go."

The run out of the room and down the hall. As the past the control room, the heard a bloodcurdling scream, Sarah didn't even have to look to see who had made it.

They made it all the way to the entrance doors before trouble popped up. The doors required a password to open.

"Oh perfect," Sarah said, she started to look around for another way out. From somewhere behind them, an explosion went off. Smoke started to cloud at the end of the corridor.

"_Really _perfect," Danny said. They were looking around frantically for some way out when Stell yelled, "I found something!" It was an air vent.

"Awesome," Sarah said as she run to where Stell was.

Sarah pulled the cover off the vent and looked at the other, "Who wants to go first?" They all just stared at her. "Thanks for volunteering," she said flatly as she crawled into the vents. The others followed her.

After about five minutes, the vent started to get warmer. "Who turned the heat on?" Vince said from behind.

"I don't think that's the heat," Sarah said grimly, there was a muffled explosion from far off outside the vent duct.

"Oh," Vince said.

Finally, they came to the end of the air duct. Sarah kicked off the vent cover and pilled out with the others.

The air was filled with the smell of smoke as explosions boomed from the compound.

"Is that everyone?" Sarah asked, doing a head count. They all were there. "Good. Now let's move!"

The sound of six wings unfurling and taking off followed as Sarah spread her own feathers.

From the air, they could see the compound burst into flames, probably killing whoever hadn't gotten out. But the seven kids could care less as they flew away, free once again.

**Well they got away, so what gonna' happen next? Well, my eager reader, only I know that...sorta. I just kinda make this stuff up as i go along :D**


	29. Clothes Closet Adventures

**Author's note: Okay folks! This is another long one!**

"Sarah," Stell said as she flew up next to Sarah, "I'm cold." Sarah looked at her. Stell was wearing a short sleeved shirt and jeans with holes in them. It was still winter and the farther north they got, the colder it got; and none of them were really dressed for cold weather.

"I'm cold too," Dallas said from behind.

"Me three," Dale chimed in.

Sarah looked at Danny, "Clothes shopping?"

Danny signed, "We don't have any money, our stuff got left at the compound." Sarah bit her lip, trying to think of a solution.

"We're coming up to a city," Vince said as he flew overhead, "I bet they have one of those clothes closets."

"Those are for the needy though," Sarah said, not liking the idea of being around complete strangers.

Danny laughed, "Look at us!" he said as he laughed, "how much more needy can you get?"

"Okay," Sarah said, seeing no other choice, "we'll just go in, get some warmer clothes, and leave."

They flew down to the brightly lit city and landed in a park.

"Try not to draw attention to yourselves," Sarah said as they walked down the sidewalk.

"So how are we gonna find this place?" Danny asked.

"Uhh…I don't know," Sarah said, "It might be at a church or something. Look for a big pointy roof."

"You mean like that one?" June said as she pointed to a church roof.

"Yup, just like that one," Sarah said as they walked over to it.

Sure enough, they church had a clothes closet in a room around back. Sarah felt slightly relieved to see that it the people running it were just a bunch of harmless old ladies.

They spread out and looked around in the clothes. Danny laughed as he picked up a wolf fur coat.

"Don't even think about it," Sarah said, not amused.

"Aw, come on," Danny said as put it on, "it's warm and fuzzy!"

"I might be related to that thing," Sarah said. Danny chuckled as he put the fur coat away.

Vince was looking around in the denim section. He picked up a fleece lined denim jacket and tried it on. It fit a little tight.

Vince heard a chuckle from behind him; he turned to so a little old lady standing there.

"That's a women's coat," she said with another chuckle, "here, I'll show you the men's section." Vince took off the jacket, almost embarrassed, and put it away. He followed to lady to another section of denim that was labeled 'men's'.

The lady picked out a jacket that looked almost exactly like the other one, "Here, try this one," she said. Vince put it on and found that it fit a lot better.

"There, now don't you look spiffy," the little old lady said, smiling up at him. Vince nodded, "Very…spiffy," he said, trying not to laugh. The little old lady walked away to help someone else. Vince looked over the clothes racks to see how to others were doing.

Stell and June were picking through a bunch of coats and jackets in the girl's section.

"Oh, I like this one," Stell said as she held up a purple corduroy coat.

"What's it got in it?" June said as she felt the inside.

"I think it's some kind of fleece," Stell said as she put it on, "It's soft."

June looked at some more jackets. She found a blue one that looked her sized. She put it on and turned to Stell, "What do ya' think?"

"I think you should get it," Stell giggled, "It looks comfy."

"It is," June said, "and warm."

"Let's go find the others and show them," Stell said. The two walked off to find the others.

Danny picked up a camo printed jacket and tried it on, "How 'bout it?" he said.

Sarah laughed, "Well at least the guard won't be able to see you."

"Yeah, and it's cozy," Danny said with a grin. Sarah picked through a bunch of women's jackets. She found a faded denim jacket and tried it on.

"I like this one," Sarah said, "It's got warm lining."

" Cool. I think I'm gonna find some new jeans," Danny said, "Mine are a little used."

"A little?" Sarah laughed as she looked at the tears and holes in Danny's blue jeans.

As Danny went to find jeans, Stell and June walked up to Sarah.

"Look at our new jackets," Stell said happily.

"Very nice," Sarah said, "they look warm."

"Where's Danny going?" June asked.

"He wanted to find some new jeans," Sarah said.

"Oh, can I get some new ones too?" June asked, "Mine are getting small."

"Mine too," Stell said.

"Yeah, I think we all could use some better pants," Sarah said. The three went over to the pants section and found some blue jeans.

The twins found them as they were waiting by the changing room.

"Hey," June said as they run up, "Found some coats I see."

"Yeah," Dallas said, "One of the ladies helped us pick them out."

"How nice," June said, "How 'bout I help you two find some new jeans?"

"Okay," Dale said. The three of them went off to the pants section.

Danny came out of the dressing room wearing a newer pair of jeans, "You got some too, huh?" He said as he saw Sarah and Stell with blue jeans.

"Yup," Sarah said as she went into the changing room.

"What size did she get?" Danny whispered to Stell with a huge grin on his face, "Extra, extra, extra large?" Stell and Danny laughed.

"I heard that!" Sarah said from inside the dressing room.

Danny laughed harder, "Whoops!" A tennis shoe flew out of the top of the dressing room and nailed him in the head. "Ow," Danny said as he picked it up, "better get out here Cinderella! I got your glass slipper," Danny said as he laughed.

Sarah came out of the dressing room in her new jeans and chased after Danny. She jumped on his back and knocked him down.

"Way to not draw attention guys," Vince said as he walked over to them. Sarah got up and brushed herself off.

Danny stood up, still laughing a little, and gave Sarah her shoe.

"Hope it fits," Danny said, "Otherwise you might have to kiss a frog!" He started laughing again.

"I'm not gonna kiss you," Sarah said, putting her shoe back on.

"Ooh, she burned you on that one," Vince said with a laugh.

Danny was about to say something but was cut off by one of the ladies working there.

"Excuse me," she said as she walked up to them, "but we close in a few minutes dears. We will be open again tomorrow if you still need anything."

"I think we got everything we need," Sarah said to the elderly women. The old lady nodded and walked away.

"Wow, that late already?" Danny said looking at his wrist, even though he didn't have a wrist watch.

"I guess so," Sarah said, "We'd better round up to others."

When the group walked outside, they found that it was much darker than when they went in. They walked around the city for a while, trying to find a place to sleep for the night.

Sarah stumbled over her feet as they walked down the sidewalk. She quickly caught herself before she fell.

"Are you okay?" Danny asked.

"I'm fine," Sarah said, "I just got a little dizzy."

"Dizzy?" Danny asked with a note of concern.

"It's nothing," Sarah insisted, "Just my stomach bothering me."

"You're probably hungry," Vince said from behind her.

"Yeah," Danny said, "We should get you something to eat."

"Let's find somewhere to sleep first," Sarah said, "Then we'll worry about me."

"Fine," Danny said, "But let's hurry." They found an empty building that was all boarded up and decided to stay there. After clearing a spot, Danny went out to find some food for all of them.

Danny walked down the sidewalk, trying to think of a place to find free food. He was too busy thinking to see the lady standing right in front of him.

"Oh," Danny said as he walked right into the woman, "Sorry, my fault."

"It's okay," the lady said as she turned to look at him, she was going to say something else, but stopped. The woman's mouth fall agape as she stared bug-eyed at Danny.

"Mom?" said a voice from the other said of the woman, "Mom, who is it?" A tall Hispanic boy, obviously related to the woman, turned to look at Danny too.

"Oh no," he said with a hint of grief.

"Robert," The boy's mother said with excitement, "It's him! It's your brother!"

**Author's note: Woa! Talk about a cliffhanger! Man, am I cruel or what? Well anyways, I got some awesome news, you can know find me on Maximum-X! The URL to my profile is on my page, so go check it out!**** and if you don't already have an account, you should think about getting one! Cuz' it's free, fun, full of other people, and did I mention free? Well, I'm gonna go now because I sound like a TV commercial. **


	30. Indy

**Author's note: Yeah, so I went ahead and wrote this chapter because I just couldn't leave you guys hanging like that. Well, mainly it was because I was bored, but let's go with the first one!**

"Mom," the boy named Robert said, "There's no way that's him."

The woman looked at him, "I know that's him," she said seriously, "I know my own son when I see him."

"It's been 12 years!" the Robert said loudly, "There's no way. You're just scaring the poor kid."

"It's him, I know it is," the woman insisted. Danny was freaked out by the whole thing, but he had to admit, the woman _did_ share some resemblance to him.

Robert signed and looked at Danny, "Where are your parents?" he asked.

"I-I-I don't know," Danny stuttered, taken by surprise.

"Oh look at him," the woman said, "he looks like he's spent his whole life out on the streets. But he's a spitting image of your father."

"Mom, I think we should go," Robert said as he started to pull his mother away from Danny.

"You should go back to your parents," Robert said to Danny. Danny just nodded and tore his eyes away from the women who claimed to be his mother. He turned and started to walk down the sidewalk. He walked faster and faster until he was running.

***

Danny returned about an hour after he left.

"I'm back!" he said as he crawled through the broken window that they were using for a door, "And I got food."

He passed out some old McDonald's French fries and a few burgers that looked untouched.

"I hope know of you guys are germaphobes," he said, "because dinner tonight is sponsored by McDonald's Dumsters."

Vince took a bite out one of the burgers, "Man, I love it when they get an order wrong" he said, "they just through all this junk away, and then _we_ get it."

"Yup," Sarah said as she ate some fries, "It's good to be the world's garbage disposal."

Danny sat away from everyone else as he ate in silence, a distant look on his face.

"You okay?" Sarah said as she sat down next to him, "Usually you'd be driving me up the wall by now."

Danny chuckled as he came back to Earth, "Yeah, I'm good at that aren't I?"

"A little too good," Sarah laughed.

"Well, I've had years on practice," Danny said, them he thought for a second. "Hey Sarah, do you remember how old we were when we met?" he asked.

"Uh, about four I think," Sarah answered.

"Do you remember anything before that?" Danny asked.

"A little bit," Sarah said, a little confused by the question. Danny was quiet for a moment.

"Do you remember anything from before you were three?" he asked suddenly.

"Hmm…" Sarah said as she thought about it, "come to think of it, no, I don't."

"Yeah," Danny said, "Me neither."

"Mind telling what this is about?" Sarah asked.

"Well," Danny started, "I met a woman today who claimed to be my mom."

"That's weird," Sarah said, then she thought for a moment. "But how would she know that?" she asked, "We were stolen as babies, how would she even know what you looked like?"

"That's what I though at first," Danny said, "But then I really started to think about it. How do we know we were stolen as babies? That's what those people told us, but how do we really know if we can't remember anything before three years old?"

"I don't know," Sarah said, "I guess it's not really a shocker if they lied to us. So do you think this woman really is your mother?"

"I'm not sure," Danny said, "but I think she _could_ be. She even kinda looked like me."

Their conversation was interrupted by a scream.

"Ahh! It's alive!" Vince screamed followed by a cat's yowl. Sarah and Danny run back over to the others to see Vince holding a tan colored cat by the scruff of the neck. The cat was hissing and fighting to get away.

"What happened? Where did that cat come from?" Sarah asked.

"I reached for a fry and it bit me," Vince said, still holding the cat.

"Please let him go!" Dallas cried, "He didn't mean to."

"Please don't hurt him," Dale joined in.

"What is going on?!" Danny yelled over the noise.

"Vince, put that thing down before it takes you arm off," Sarah said. Vince nodded and let go of the cat. The cat landed on the ground and ran behind Dallas and Dale.

"It's okay," Dale said to the cat as he pet it, "Vince didn't mean it."

"Boys," Sarah said to the twins, "whose cat is that?"

"He's ours," Dallas answered.

"Right," Sarah said, "and where did you get it?"

"We found him at Compound 10," Dale said as he picked on the cat and held it like a baby. The cat was almost too big for him to even hold.

"You found it at the Compound?" Sarah said is surprise, "That cat could be a killer!"

"He's not a killer," Dallas said, "He's just a kitty. Please can we keep him?"

"I don't think that such a good idea," Danny said, "Anything that comes from the Compound is bad news."

"But _we_ came from the compound," Dale said, "and we're not bad."

"Please please _please_ can we keep him?" Dallas said, using his puppy eyes, "We'll take care of him I promise! And we already named him."

"Boys," June said, "we can't afford to feed a cat. We can barely afford to feed ourselves."

"But he's a cat," Dale said, "he can catch his own food."

"Please can we keep him?" Dallas begged, using his puppy eyes again."

"I don't know…" Sarah said, "What do you think Danny?"

"You are _not_ putting this on me," Danny said.

"Thanks," Sarah said sarcastically.

"So can we keep him?" Dale asked hopefully.

Sarah signed, "One week," she said, "One week, and if it doesn't work out, off he goes. Understand?"

"Yay!" the two cried with joy as the run over and hugged Sarah tightly. They then turned back to the cat, "You get to stay Indy!" Dale said as he ran back over to the cat. He picked the cat up and carried it over to Sarah. "Say hi to Sarah, Indy," he said as he held the cat up. It was a short haired, tannish-brown cat with golden eyes and a black tipped tail. The cat had an almost cougar-like appearance.

The cat, Indy as the twins had apparently named him, meow at Sarah.

"What kind of cat is he?" Sarah asked as she looked at the animal.

"He said he was a, uh what was it?" Dale asked as he turned to Dallas.

"I think he said chausie, didn't he?" Dallas said.

"Oh yeah, he said he was a chausie," Dale said to Sarah.

"Who said he was a chausie?" Sarah asked, now thoroughly confused.

"Indy did," Dallas said.

"Wait, what?" Danny said, looking at the twins with confusion.

"You mean Indy, this cat right here, _told _you what kind of cat he was?" Sarah asked.

"Uh-huh," Dallas confirmed.

Sarah looked from the cat to the twins. "So it talks?" She asked.

"Well," Dale said, "kinda."

"Show them," Dallas said.

"Yeah, show them, Indy," Dale said as he put the cat down. The cat sat on the ground and looked at the twins in silence.

"No, they won't think you're weird," Dale said to the cat, "go ahead, show them." Indy nodded his head and looked around at everyone.

"_Hello everyone,"_ a male voice said inside everyone's head.

"What was that?" Vince asked, looking around for the owner of the voice. There were similar responses from everyone else, except the twins.

"_It was me, the cat,"_ the same voice said. All eyes fell on the cat sitting in front of the twins.

"Isn't he cool?" Dallas said.

"So the cat really _does_ talk," Sarah said, looking at the cat.

"_Well, not really talk,"_ the cat said inside everyone's head, _"it's more like sending a telepathic message."_

"Great," Danny said, "so we got a cat that reads mind."

"_I can't read your mind, I can only talk to you inside your head,"_ the cat said, _"it's kinda like a radio. I can send messages, but I can't receive them."_

"Well this is going to take some getting use to," Vince said as he sat down. The rest of the evening was spent greeting the newest member of the group. After a while, they were ready to go to sleep. Vince took the night watch as everyone else went to sleep. Indy slept curled up in between to twins. Maybe having a cat wouldn't be so bad.

**Author's note: Yup, now the gang has a cat, kinda like Total from Maximum Ride, exept better because it's a cat :D i you get the time, you should go google "chausie" they're a really cool breed of cat. They really do look like a mini cougar.**


	31. Petting Zoo Attack

The Compound Units Director walked swiftly down the hall. He was headed to the Superintendent's office. He stopped outside the door and knocked.

"Come in," said a voice from inside. The director opened the door and stepped inside.

"What brings you here, Martin?" the Superintendent asked in an almost uninterested voice.

"I have received news that Compound 10 has been destroyed sir," Martin said in an official tone.

"Destroyed?" the Superintendent asked, now suddenly interested, "by whom?"

"We don't know for sure, but we believe that the culprits are seven experiments," Martin said, "they were found near Compound 10 and were captured. We have footage from a recovered security camera that shows them escaping."

"Do you have this footage with you?" the Superintendent asked.

"Yes sir," Martin answered as he held up a small tape. The Superintendent took the tape and inserted it into a computer. The computer screen came to life with the image of seven young experiments crawling into an air duct.

"Is this the only footage recovered?" the Superintendent asked.

"Yes sir," Martin said, "no other security cameras survived the fire." The Superintendent narrowed his eyes at the experiments shown on the screen.

"Have any of the escaped experiments been identified?" he asked.

"Yes sir," Martin said, "We have identified four of the experiments as the same four that escaped Compound 24. Three we believe are the same three that escaped from Compound 15 and attempted to destroy the Headquarters."

"All troublemakers I see," the Superintendent said, "I wonder how they all ended up together."

"One more thing sir," Martin said, "there was only one experiment being held at Compound 10 before the others were brought in. The compound has been searched thoroughly, but its remains have not been found."

"Which experiment is this?"

"Number 55604," Martin answered. The Superintendent entered the number into the computer. An image of a cat popped onto the screen.

"This experiment was being used to test a breakthrough discovery in mind reading power. The test failed because the experiment was unable to read minds, only send telepathic messages," the Superintendent read from the information listed about 55604.

"We believe that this experiment has escaped; possibly with the other seven," Martin said.

"And what happened to the other residents of Compound 10?" the Superintendent asked.

"All scientists and guards were killed in the explosion," Martin answered, "Including 9924."

"The reptilian guard?" the Superintendent asked. Martin nodded.

"What a shame," the Superintendent said, "He was the first one to ever survive the reptile/mammal hybrid mutation."

"What should we do about the escaped experiments?" Martin asked.

"Send the guards after them," the Superintendent answered. Martin nodded and turned, leaving out the door.

The Superintendent went back to his previous work, not even slightly worried about the escaped experiments. He figured that the guards would make quick work of them. But then again, he didn't know the seven runaways very well.

***

The next day, the gang found themselves walking down the city sidewalk.

"I'm hungry," Stell said, "Can we get something to eat?"

"Yeah, I could go for some breakfast," Vince said.

Just as they turned a corner, they found themselves in a sea of people. People crowded around what looked like a street fair.

"Cool!" Stell exclaimed, "Can we check it out?"

"We don't have any money to get in," Sarah said.

"But it says that admission is free," Stell said, pointing to a sign, "And they have free food!"

"Free food?" Danny said, "Well they got _my_ attention."

"Well," Sarah said, thinking about it, "I guess it couldn't hurt."

"Yay!" Stell said with happiness. The first place they went after getting in the fair was to a free food stand.

"Free hotdogs! Get your free hotdogs! They're free!" Yelled the man running the stand.

"What can I get for you kids?" He asked as they came up to the stand.

"How many can we get for free?" Sarah asked.

"As many as you can eat," the man said.

"Great! I'll take two," Sarah said. The man handed her two hotdogs wrapped in tinfoil.

"How many for you?" the man asked Danny.

"I'll take five," Danny said automatically.

The others ordered their food and sat down at the picnic table that Sarah was sitting at. Vince of course got six hotdogs just to outdo Danny's order.

"I bet you can't even eat all," Danny laughed.

"Oh yeah?" Vince said with a grin, "I bet I can eat all six of my hotdogs before you can eat yours."

"It's on!" Danny said.

The two shook on it and started devouring their food.

"Hope you don't choke," Sarah said, watching the two boys practically inhale their food.

"Oh yeah!" Vince yelled victoriously as he finished his last hotdog five seconds before Danny, "who da' man!"

"You da' man with mustard on your face," Danny said with a laugh as he pointed to a glob on mustard on Vince's face.

Vince wiped it off with his hand, "Well that's embarrassing."

"Yes," Danny agreed, "yes it is."

"_I'm embarrassed to be seen with either one of you," _Indy said to the two. Vince looked at the cat sitting beside him and wiped the mustard on him. Indy let out a displeased growl.

"Wow Indy," Danny said, "Yellow is really your color!" Vince and Danny burst out laughing.

Indy quickly started to lick the yellow condiment out of his fur.

"Sarah," Dale said, "can we go to the petting zoo?"

"I guess so," Sarah said. They headed over to the petting zoo, which was free too apparently.

"Hey check out this llama," Danny said as he petted a bored looking llama.

"Yeah," Sarah said, "It looks like it's having loads of fun." Danny watched as another llama walked up to him.

"They're so fluffy," he said, Danny reached towards the other llama to pet it, but before he could, the fuzzy creature spit in his face and ran.

"AH!" Danny yelled as he stumbled back in surprise. The others laughed as he wiped to llama spit off his face.

"Eww, llama slime," Danny said as he wiped his face with his jacket sleeve.

Dale and Dallas ran off to look at the potbelly pigs.

"Hey look at that horse," Stell said as she walked over to a miniature pony, "Aww, he's so cute!"

As Stell preoccupied herself with the miniature pony, June was being chases around by a goat that wanted to eat her hair.

Danny had found a dog that knew how to play fetch and was now throwing stick after stick to it. Vince went to rescue June from the goat, which left only Sarah and Indy standing in the middle of the petting zoo.

"_I don't like this place,"_ Indy said as he looked around at the other animals.

"Me neither," Sarah replied, "It's smelly and crowded."

Indy's gaze fell on a fluffy, white, girl cat that was sitting by a crate of animal food in a far corner.

"_Well hello," _Indy said, _"Maybe this place isn't all that bad after all."_ He puffed out his chest and strutted over to the girl cat.

Sarah just rolled her eyes and looked around, making sure everyone was still there. As she looked around, something outside the tent caught her attention. She walked over to the entrance and looked out; her heart felt like it skipped a beat. Outside the tent, only about ten feet away, was a group of men that were, without a doubt, compound guards.

Sarah pulled her head back inside the tent, adrenaline already pumping through her body. She run to Danny, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him out of earshot of the other people in the tent.

"Hey! What the-," Danny started to say, but Sarah cut him off.

"Guards," she said, that's all it took. Danny's eye widen as she realized what was going on.

"I'll get the others," Danny said in an automatically serious tone. Sarah nodded and looked back to where the guards were. The guards still hadn't seemed to notice that they were in the tent, but that probably wouldn't last too long.

Danny came back with five kids and a cat, all ready to make a run for it. Sarah motioned them to follow her out the back of the tent. They quickly made their way through the bunches of animals and people. They were halfway through the tent when Vince unknowingly stepped on the tail of a miniature donkey that was lying on the ground.

The surprised donkey immediately started braying loudly, catching the attention of everyone within earshot, including the guards.

"Hey!" One of the guards yelled, "There they are!"

"Run!" Sarah said. They gang ran to the tent's back exit and took off into the air as soon as they were out. The guards followed closely behind, morphed and ready for a fight.

Sarah was flying as fast as her wings could carry her; she looked back to make sure that the other were keeping up. Sarah quickly turned back as a bullet shot past her face. One of the guards had a gun, and was by no means afraid to use it.

Another gun fire went off behind them. Luckily, the guard firing had pretty bad aim. Sarah saw a city park below them, and dipped down into the trees, knowing that the guards couldn't maneuver through them very well.

Some of the guards followed them, while some just followed from above. Two more gun shots went off behind them as they twisted and turned through the trees. Sarah saw light up ahead and knew that they were running out of cover.

Just as they were about to fly out of the trees, a group of guards blocked them. Sarah turned to go back to other way, but there were guards there too. They were surrounded.

The guards sneered, a couple even laughed, as they closed in on they seven kids. A couple of guards flew above them in case they tried to fly upwards.

"End of the road," one guard said, the one with the gun. Sarah landed and prepared for a fight, the others followed suit. This may not end well.


	32. Fight and Run

**Author's note: Sorry for the delay, I had a little writer's block. Oh well! On with the story!**

The guard holding the gun aimed his weapon at the seven kids, ready to fire at the first one who moved. He smirked as he watched the group, not even noticing the cat that was slinking ever so quietly towards him.

The guard let out a sudden yelped as Indy attacked his legs, giving the others a chance to make a run for it.

"Come on!" Sarah yelled to the others, motioning for them to take off. They flew up into the air as fast as they could.

"Where are we going?" Danny asked as he flew up beside Sarah.

"Away from _them_," Sarah answered. She looked back and saw that the guards had taken off after them, and at a surprisingly fast speed too.

More bullets whizzed past them as the armed guard shot his gun. Vince cried out in pain from behind. Sarah looked back and saw him fall a few feet. He flew clumsily to the ground.

Sarah felt dread running through her as she realized that he had been shot. She flew down after him with the others behind her.

Sarah landed beside Vince in the back parking lot of a grocery store. " Are you okay?" she asked him.

"I'm fine," Vince said, "It just hit my wing." There was the sound over about a dozen pairs of wings landing. Sarah turned around to see that the guards had caught up with them. Vince tucked in his wings, ignoring the pain that it caused.

The seven kids readied themselves for a fight, and this time the guards' weren't going to fall for Indy's trick again.

The armed guard advanced towards them, his gun aimed and ready to fire. Danny took a chance and lunged forward, grabbing the gun away from the guard. He quickly unloaded all of its bullets onto the ground before shoving it into his pocket.

The guards all started to come at them from all angles, overwhelming the kids.

Sarah round-housed kicked a guard right in the head as another guard grabbed her from behind. She morphed quickly and dug her claws into the guard's arm, freeing herself.

Danny was being attacked by three guards at once, but seemed to be winning. He jumped at one, landing on his chest and knocking him down. Danny turned as another guard came at him from behind. Danny flew up and tackled the guard from the air just as another tried to grab him from behind. Danny elbowed him in the stomach, making the guard release him.

One of stood and pointed a gun at Danny. Danny's eyes widened, he looked down and saw that the gun he had put in his pocket was gone.

The guard sneered and pulled the trigger, but the gun only clicked. Danny smirked at the guard, remembering that he had dumped all of the gun's ammo on the ground. The guard growled and put the gun away.

Vince dodged out of the way as a tiger guard swiped at him with its dagger-like claws. Vince jumped on the guard's back, digging his claws into its shoulders. The guard roared angrily, he reached back and grabbed Vince. The guard threw Vince over his head, making him land hard on his back. Vince winced as his injured wing took the impact.

The guard stood over him and looked down with an annoyingly smug look.

Vince grabbed the guard's legs and stood up, causing the guard to fall. He looked at the guard with the same smug expression.

Stell and June were fighting back to back, they seemed to be holding out. June punched a guard in the nose as he lunged at her. Stell fly kicked another in the head.

The twins dodged between the guards' legs, making them trip and fall. It was working pretty well until one guard grabbed Dale by the arm.

Dale struggled and kicked against the guard but it didn't seem to do any good. Suddenly, a huge mountain lion came out of nowhere and leaped at the guard. Before he even knew what hit him, the guard was on the ground with a cougar on his chest.

Dale and Dallas made a run for it as the cougar attacked the guards.

Sarah heard a loud, angry roar. She looked up and saw a mountain lion viscously mauling a guard.

As she looked at the big cat, a fist slammed into the side of her head. Sarah stumbled back a few steps and turned to see another guard right in front of her. She ducked down and swept her foot under him, making the guard fall flat on his back.

Danny flew up to Sarah and landed beside her. "There's too many of them," he said, "We're gonna' have to make a run for it."

"What are you talking about?" Sarah said, "We're winning."

"I'm talking about _them_," Danny said, he pointed up it the sky where two black helicopters where headed towards them.

"Oh," Sarah said, "That's not good. Ok, let's get the others and get outta' here." Danny nodded and ran to get the others. Sarah did the same.

Vince saw two black helicopters headed their way. "Uh-oh," he said to himself. He looked around to see if anyone else had noticed. Sarah and Danny looked like they were getting everyone together.

"Vince!" Danny yelled to him, "Come on!" Vince nodded and started to run to them. He got a few steps before a guard grabbed him, wrapping its arm around his neck. Vince gagged as the guard's arm presses into his neck. He instantly started to kick at the guard behind him, but it didn't seem to make any difference.

There was a saddened roar as something big and furry tackled the guard to the ground. Vince turned to see a cougar standing on top of the guard, its sharp fangs biting into the guard's neck.

The mountain lion looked up at him. _"Are you okay?"_ said Indy's voice inside Vince's head.

"Indy?" Vince asked the lion, feeling a little dumb for talking to it. The mountain lion nodded once.

"Uh…I'm fine," Vince said after a few seconds.

"_Good,"_ Indy said,_ "let's get out of here."_ They ran to where the others where waiting.

"Is everyone here?" Sarah asked, doing a quick headcount, "Good, let's go." She unfolded her wings and took into the air, followed by the others.

Indy unfolded a pair of sandy colored wings. "Dude," Vince said, "You have wings?"

"_How do you think I get around?"_ Indy asked. Vince just shrugged and unfolded his own wings.

"Ah," Vince said as he winced, he had forgotten about his injured wing. "I can't fly like this," he said as he looked at his bloody wing.

Sarah flew down and landed next to him, "Need some help?" she asked.

"Yeah," Vince said, "The only way I could with this wing is if I was going in circles." Sarah called up to Danny who flew down and landed on the other side on Vince.

"You grab one arm I'll get the other," Sarah told Danny. The two lifted Vince into the air, holding him under the arm.

"We can't get too far like this," Sarah said, "Those helicopters are bound to catch up to us."

The gang was flying over a bunch of trees; they were getting farther and farther outside the city limits. Sarah scanned the ground for a place to take cover.

The sound of helicopter blades and strong gusts of wind told them that the helicopters where right behind them.

"June!" Sarah yelled over the sound of the helicopters, "Take them and go hide!" June nodded and flew away with the others.

"We've got to land!" Sarah yelled to Danny. He nodded and started to descend along with Vince, and Sarah.

The three touched down and started to run through the woods, the trees shaking from the helicopters' wind.

**Author's note: Yeah, I know, kind of a weird place to end it, but I had to cut it off somewhere. **


	33. Mother Hen

**Author's note: Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!**

The forest melted away into grass, and a house appeared in front of them. Sarah paused for a second and stared at the house. The sound of helicopters nearing made her move again.

"Come on," Sarah said as she ran toward the house. She saw that the garage door was open and ducked inside, Danny and Vince at her heels. They hid behind one of the cars and hoped that the helicopters would just pass over them.

Sarah signed in relief as the sound of the helicopters faded. She was about to stand up when the door leading out to the garage opened. Sarah froze.

Footsteps entered the room, leading out into the yard. Then, they came back into the garage and stopped. Sarah motioned to Danny and Vince to follow her. She stayed in a crouching position and crawled towards the outside. Danny and Vince were right behind her.

Sarah stopped when she saw a boy, a few years older than herself, digging in the trunk of the car. She crept as quietly as she could past him. She turned to make sure the other two made it.

Vince was silently creeping past the boy, but the tip of his wing brushed against his leg. The boy looked up and saw Vince and Danny.

"Hey!" he said in a more surprised than angry voice. Vince ran past him and met Sarah in the yard, tucking his wings into his jacket. Danny tried to make it past the guy, but the boy grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back.

"What are you doing in- hey, I know you," the boy said as he got a better look at Danny, "You're that kid from the street corner." Danny looked up at the boy and saw that it was the same one that was with the women who claimed to be his mother.

"What are you doing here?" the boy asked in a less threatening tone.

"Uhh," Danny said blankly, he looked to Sarah and Vince for help. The boy noticed and turned to see the two in the yard.

"You weren't trying to rob the place were you?" the boy asked as he looked at Sarah and Vince.

"No," Danny said, "We were just, uh, wondering if we could use your phone to call our parents."

"And that's why you were sneaking around, huh?" the boy asked, doubting Danny's lie.

"Yeah," Danny said simply.

"Fine," the boy said, "Phone's in the kitchen, follow me." The boy led Danny into the house, still holding onto his collar. Sarah and Vince followed carefully behind.

"There you go," the boy said, showing Danny the kitchen phone.

"Um, ok," Danny said, "I'm just gonna' call my parents now." He picked up the phone and dialed a random number.

"_Hello, Domino's pizza delivery, how may I help you?"_ some lady said as she answered the phone. The boy raised his eyebrow at Danny.

"Hi Mom," Danny said, ignoring the look the boy was giving him.

"_Excuse me?" _the lady said, sounding confused.

"Yeah, we're gonna be late for dinner tonight," Danny said.

"_Sir, I believe you have to wrong number," _the lady said.

"Thanks Mom, I love you too," Danny said.

"_Is this some kind of prank call? It's not funny,"_ the lady said in and annoyed voice. Danny hung the phone up quickly.

"Well, I guess we'll be going," Danny said as he started towards the door.

"Hold on a second," the boy said, blocking Danny with an arm, "Where are your parents? And no, the Domino's pizza lady doesn't count."

"Ok," Danny said, "I forgot my phone number, so I can't call them."

"Do I look like I was born yesterday?" the boy said, starting to get a little annoyed.

"Of course not," Danny said, trying to get around the boy's arm, "you're _way_ too hansom to be a day old."

The boy kept his arm in front of Danny, "Flattery will get you nowhere," he said, "I want the truth. Now tell me what you were doing on my property or I'll call the police on you."

"Eh, it was worth a shot," Danny said.

"We weren't trying to steal anything," Sarah said, "We were hiding."

"Hiding?" the boy asked, "From who?"

"There were some bad men chasing us," Sarah said, technically telling the truth, "We ran into your garage to hide."

"Well that's a little different," the boy said, "why didn't you just say so?"

"We panicked," Sarah said simply, "So, no need to call the cops."

"Oh I should still call the police," the boy said, "They can catch those men and make sure you get home safely."

"Please don't call the police," Vince said.

"Why not?" the boy asked suspiciously

"Because…" Vince said, trying to think of a reason.

"Because we're homeless," Sarah said, Vince and Danny both looked at her in surprise.

"Sarah are you sure-" Danny started to say, but Sarah cut him off.

"Yes," she said, "we might as well tell him, if we don't, he'll just call the cops."

The boy was taken aback by what Sarah had said. "You're really homeless?" he asked, "All three of you?" Sarah nodded.

"Did you run away from your parents or something?" the boy asked.

"We don't have parents," Sarah answered, "Well, if we do, we don't know where they are."

"How did that happen?" the boy asked, "If you don't mind me asking."

"We were all kidnapped at an early age," Sarah said, "that's all you need to know."

The boy seemed to consider this. He noticed how dirty the three teens were; they looked like they hadn't had a descent wash in weeks.

"Okay," he said after a few seconds, "I won't call the police. But can you at least tell me what you were doing hiding in my garage?"

"We were hiding from someone," Sarah said, not giving any details.

"This wouldn't have anything to do with those low-flying police helicopters would it?" the boy asked with suspicion.

"Those weren't police helicopters," Vince said. Sarah elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow!" Vince rubbed his side, "What? I though we were telling the truth now."

"What are you-" the boy started to say, but he was interrupted by the sound of someone coming in the door.

"Hey honey," said the woman who had just came in, "I'm back." The woman stopped and looked at the three strangers in her kitchen.

"Are these friends of yours, Robert?" she asked as she set her car keys on the kitchen table.

"Actually-" the boy, Robert, started to say, but he was cut off again.

"Yeah, we're friends," Sarah said quickly, "And we were just on our way out."

Sarah motioned for the other two to leave as she walked towards the door. Vince turned, and Danny dodged around Robert's arm and head out too.

"Wait!" Robert called after them, "You're more then welcome to stay here."

"We'd rather not," Vince said as he went out the door.

Sarah was almost outside the garage when she stopped dead in her tracks. Vince ran into her, and Danny ran into Vince.

"Hey, what-" Vince started to say, but his question was answered before he could even finish it. They could hear the two helicopters coming back their way.

"On second thought," Sarah said, "Maybe we can stay for a little longer." The three hurried back to the door.

As they re-entered the house, the woman caught sight of Danny. She smiled widely and pulled him into a bone crushing hug.

"Mom!" Robert said, "Don't hurt the guy!" The woman pulled away from Danny and blushed a little.

"Sorry," She said, "He just looks so much like Joseph."

"Mom," Robert said, "they said they're homeless. Maybe they could stay here for a while."

"We really don't have to, we're fine on our own," Sarah said. Robert's mom looked like she had just been hit with a brick.

"And stay out there on the cold, dark streets?" She said, "I won't hear of it." She went over to the refrigerator and started rummaging throw it, taking out various items. "I was just about to make lunch," she said, "You should stay."

"We really have to get going," Sarah said, remembering that the others were still out in the woods somewhere.

"Oh, I insist!" Robert's mom said, getting out a pot and pouring chicken broth in it.

"Maybe staying here for a little while isn't such a bad idea," Vince whispered to Sarah.

"But the others are stiff out there somewhere," Sarah whispered back, "We can't just leave them alone."

"I could go find them and bring them here," he offered.

"You can't fly, remember?" Sarah said, "I should go find them."

"What are we whispering about?" Danny asked in a whisper.

"I'm going to go find the others and bring them here," Sarah told him.

"Oh, ok," Danny said. Sarah started to head for the door.

"Where are you going?" Robert's mom asked as she stirred the soup she was making.

"Oh, uh, I have to go find my other friends," Sarah said, "we kinda got separated."

"Oh," Robert's mom said, "Well be careful, and hurry back!" She called as Sarah headed out the door. Robert's mom seemed like a mother hen that had just adopted three new baby chickens. Three very dirty, beat up, mutant baby chickens.

**Author's note: Well, I'm sure you readers hear this a lot, but...REVIEW!**


	34. Affirmation

**Author's note: Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!**

The four sat around the kitchen table in an awkward silence. They each had a bowl of chicken soup and a grilled cheese sandwich on a plate in front of them. Danny and Vince were both eating their fourth sandwich. Sarah hadn't returned yet, and the two boys were starting to get worried.

"These are good grill cheeses Mrs…uh" Danny started to say, but then he remembered that he didn't know the woman's last name.

"Perez," She said for him, smiling, "And thank-you. You must really like them."

"Well, it's been a while since we had a good meal," Vince said. There was a brief silence.

"So…" Robert said, ending the silence, "how long have you guys been on your own?" Danny thought about the question, and any possible consequences of answering it.

"As long as I can remember," Danny answered finally.

"How long is that?" Robert asked.

"About three or four years old I guess," Danny said, making something up. He wondered if Robert was going anywhere with this.

"Oh that's awful!" Mrs. Perez exclaimed, "Who took care of you?"

"A bunch of different people," Danny said with a shrug, technically, it was true.

"How did you end up like that?" Robert asked.

"We were kidnapped," Danny answered, "but we escaped."

"Kidnapped?" Mrs. Perez repeated, "Just like Joseph. We can only hope that _he_ escaped."

"Who's Joseph?" Vince asked, "If you don't mind me asking." Mrs. Perez crinkled and unwrinkled her napkin in her hands anxiously.

"Joseph is my youngest son," She said, "He was kidnapped when he was three."

"How did that happen?" Danny asked out of curiosity.

"I didn't see it," Mrs. Perez answered, "I went inside for a few minutes to get my camera. Robert was the only one who saw it, but he was only six years old."

"I'll never forget it," Robert said, all three turned towards him. "Joseph and I were in the backyard. I kicked my ball over the fence and into the front yard; I opened the gate to get it, and Joseph followed me.

"I saw my ball in the front yard and ran to get it, but I stopped when a saw a black helicopter flying low above the trees. Being six, I was mesmerized by it. The helicopter hovered above the house. A group of half a dozen men came flying out of it; flying as in they had _wings_.

"I think it was then that I realized something was wrong; I started to run back into the backyard, but one of the winged men landed right in front of me. He was big and muscular, and he had cold, emotionless eyes." Danny and Vince listened intently; the story had their full attention.

"At first, the guy looked mostly normal, but then he started to change. He turned into some kind of werewolf-like monster, tail and all. I was so terrified, that I had almost forgotten about Joseph. But then I heard him scream; I turned to see another one of the monsters picking him up.

"I forgot the fact that it was over twice my size and ran to help my little brother. But before I could even get there, the monsters were gone; they had flown back up to the helicopter, taking Joseph with them." As Robert finished his side of the story, Danny and Vince stared at him bug eyed with their mouths agape.

"By the time I got there," Mrs. Perez said, "Joseph was already gone, and with no helicopter in sight."

"No one believed me when I told them what I saw," Robert said, "Mom still doesn't."

"The story is just so far fetched," Mrs. Perez explained, "It just isn't possible."

"I believe you," Danny said without thinking. Mrs. Perez looked at him funny.

"You do?" Robert asked, he seemed a little surprised.

"Uhh, sure," Danny said, realizing what he had just said.

"No you don't," Robert said, "You're just saying that." Before anything else could be said, there was a bang and a crash from the garage.

"Ow!" Someone exclaimed, "Stupid bucket!" Danny and Vince recognized the voice as Stell's.

The door leading inside opened as Sarah came in, followed by the rest of the gang. "Sorry I took so long," Sarah said, "These guys are pretty good hiders."

"I smell food," Dale stated as he followed Sarah into the kitchen. Mrs. Perez stood up as the new arrivals gathered in her kitchen. She got out more plates and glasses and handed them to the new guests.

"You can help yourselves," Mrs. Perez told them, "there's soup on the stove and sandwiches at the table."

Indy meowed up at Mrs. Perez expectantly.

"Oh! What an adorable little cat," Mrs. Perez said as she peered down at Indy, "Is he with you?"

"Yeah," Sarah said, "That's Indy. I could put him outside if you don't want him in the house." Indy glared up at Sarah.

"No it's okay," Mrs. Perez said, "he can have some of Mia's food."

"Who's Mia?" Sarah asked.

"She's our cat," Mrs. Perez said as she opened the pantry, "she should be around here somewhere." Mrs. Perez backed out of the pantry with two can of wet cat food in the hands. "How much do you think he'll eat?" she asked.

"_I could eat a cow!"_ Indy said inside Sarah's head.

"Two should be fine," Sarah said, ignoring Indy.

"_If I starve, it's your fault,"_ Indy told Sarah.

"You're not gonna starve," Sarah said.

"What was that?" Mrs. Perez asked as she pried open the cans.

"Nothing," Sarah answered. Mrs. Perez put the cat food cans on the floor and went to find chairs for the other kids to sit.

Somehow, Mrs. Perez managed to find sitting room for everyone. June, Stell, Dale, and Dallas had to sit at the dining room table.

After everyone had finished eating, they moved into the living room. Robert showed Stell and the twins how to work the TV while June, Vince, Danny, and Sarah discussed their next move.

"Hey Sarah," Danny said, "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure," Sarah replied.

"Over here," Danny said, pulling Sarah away from the others. They stood in a hallway, out of earshot of the living room.

"So what's going?" Sarah asked, wondering what Danny had to say that he didn't want the others to hear.

"Remember that lady I told you about," Danny asked, "the one that claimed to be my mother?" Sarah nodded. "Well that's her out there," he said, motioning to Mrs. Perez. Sarah looked at the woman in the living room.

"I think she's my real mother," Danny said.

"What makes you think that?" Sarah asked, "She does _kinda_ look like you, but how-"

"She knows about the guards," Danny said, interrupting Sarah.

"She does?" Sarah asked with surprise.

"Well, not really _her_, but her son does," Danny replied, "He told us about how his brother was kidnapped by strange men, and the people he described sounded _exactly _like compound guards."

"It might just be a coincidence," Sarah said, "You never know."

"That's what I thought," Danny said, "but how many people have their son stolen by guards, happen to be the same ethnic, _and_ happen to look like me?"

"I guess it _is_ a little unlikely," Sarah said, "So are you gonna tell her?"

"I don't know," Danny said, "how do I tell a complete stranger that they might be my mother?"

"You could just flat out tell her," Sarah said.

"Oh, that'll be interesting," Danny said with a hint of sarcasm, "Hey! You're my mom!"

"That could work," Sarah responded calmly. Danny, on the other hand, wasn't so sure.

"How would we tell her about the compound?" Danny asked, "How do you think she'll react when she finds out that we're human/animal freaks?"

"Oh come on," Sarah said, "what's the worst she can do?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" Danny asked flatly.

"Well maybe she won't take it too hard," Sarah said, "I told the Philips about the compound, and they took it okay."

"You got lucky," Danny said, "That doesn't mean _I_ will." Sarah thought for a second.

"Well," She said, "if things turn out wrong, then we can always make a run for it."

"I guess," Danny said.

"Come on," Sarah said as she pulled Danny back into the living room, "Let's go tell her now and get it over with."

"_Now?!"_ Danny asked loudly, "Can't we wait a little?"

"Nope," Sarah replied as she dragged Danny up to Mrs. Perez. "Can we talk to you?" Sarah asked politely.

"Sure," Mrs. Perez said, "What do you need?"

"Can we talk to you in private?" Sarah asked, still using a polite voice.

"Oh," Mrs. Perez said, taken aback a little, "okay." The three went into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"So," Mrs. Perez said, "what do you want to talk about?"

"It's about your son Joseph," Danny answered.

"What about him?" Mrs. Perez asked, even more taken aback.

"Well…" Danny started to say, but somehow lost his words.

"We think Danny might be him," Sarah said for him. Mrs. Perez's eye grew wide and her mouth fell open.

**Author's note: Oh no! Not another cliffhanger! Sorry I about that, but I had to cut it off _somewhere_! Not to worry, I'll get working on the next chapter right away! :)**


	35. By the way, We're Mutant Freaks

**Author's note: Next chapter! Woot!**

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Perez asked.

"Well," Sarah said, "We were all kidnapped at an early age; we thought it happened when we were still babies, up until recently."

"What made you think different?" Mrs. Perez asked.

"You," Danny answered simply. Mrs. Perez furrowed her brow in confusion. "When you saw on the street corner the other day and thought that I was your son, it made me think," Danny explained, "then when Robert told Vince and me how your son was kidnapped, it pretty much confirmed it."

"You think there are really men who can turn into furry monsters?" Mrs. Perez asked skeptically.

"I don't think, I _know_," Danny said, "I've lived around them my whole life."

"How is that possible?" Mrs. Perez asked.

"It's a pretty long story," Sarah said.

"I've got plenty of time," Mrs. Perez answered.

"Okay," Sarah said, "It starts with the Compound, an organization of mad scientists. At the Compound, these scientists preformed cruel, dangerous, and I'm pretty sure illegal, experiments on human test subjects. Most of the subjects were children, since they weren't fully grown, their genes were easier to alter.

"The scientists preformed advanced genetic alterations on the kids, splicing their DNA with that of animals. They used tons of different animals, but only two different kinds every worked out: feline and canine.

"The experiments had the ability to morph into human/animal creatures with enhanced strength, endurance, and senses.

"Somewhere along the line, the scientists found out that the experiments had very strange bones. They were so hard that they were almost impossible to break, but they were also light like a bird's. This gave the scientists the idea to add wings to their experiments.

"They found that adding bird DNA only messed up the rest of the experiment's genetics. So they found a way to graft wings into the experiments' back. And with a few other alterations, the experiments were able to fly.

"The scientists trained there experiments to be vicious, to fight, kill, and destroy without a second thought. And once the experiments did what they were told, killed and fought mercilessly, and only listened to the scientists, they were taken away. The scientists injected steroids into the experiments, making them bigger and stronger then the others. Those experiments were used as guards and lackeys.

"But not all the experiments did what they were told. They were trained to be killers, just like the others, but they knew that what was happening was wrong. They retained their ability to think for themselves. The scientists saw this as a flaw, and separated them from the other experiments.

"They were kept in cages in a room that was shut off from the main area of the compound. They were often put with one or two other rebellious experiments, and that was usually the only human face they saw for long time periods of time. The only other time they saw someone else was when a scientist or guard came in the take them away.

"The scientist used them to test new, unstable experiments on. That way, if the experiment didn't turn out right, they didn't lose a 'good' experiment.

"They also used them to train the obedient experiments. They pinned them against each other is a room called a 'drill room'. A lot of the time, experiments were injured during a drill; sometimes one gets killed.

"That's how Danny and I met. When were about four years old, they injected us with the mutation formula. They put us in the drill room together, hoping that we would morph and start a fight. But we didn't. Neither of us wanted to fight.

"As we got older, we continued to not follow orders. We were put in a room together, stuck in cages, and were treated like dirt.

"We grew up in cages. We were often beaten and neglected. For a long time, we didn't even know that there was a world outside the Compound.

"The first time we ever saw the outdoors was when we were nine. We had gotten out of our cages and were running aimlessly through the Compound. We made it all the way to the front entrance, but when we opened the door and saw trees and grass and sky, we didn't know what to think. We ended up getting caught and taken back to our cages. That's how a lot of our attempts to escape ended.

"But not too long ago, we got away from the Compound. We met the others and decided to find the Compound's headquarters and shut it down. And that's what we've been doing up to today."

While Sarah had been talking, Mrs. Perez had been very quiet. She looked from Sarah to Danny and back to Sarah.

"How could any of this have happened?" Mrs. Perez asked no one in particular.

"I don't know," Sarah said, "But it did." Mrs. Perez shook her head in disbelief.

"How?" she asked quietly, almost to herself.

"We can show you if you don't believe us," Danny said.

"Show me what?" Mrs. Perez asked.

"This," Sarah said. She stood up and walked into the middle of the kitchen Mrs. Perez turned in her chair and watched her. Sarah faced Mrs. Perez and unfurled her wings slowly, stretching them out so that the each the tips brushed against the walls on either side of the room.

Mrs. Perez's eye grew wide, like they were going to pop out of her head.

"And this," Danny said from behind her. Mrs. Perez turned to see Danny standing beside her chair, fully morphed.

Mrs. Perez let out a startled cry and fell backwards out of her chair. Robert came running into the kitchen.

"Mom! What's wrong, I heard you scre-" he stopped mid-sentence as he caught sight of Danny, still fully morphed, standing next to an empty chair. Mrs. Perez was still sitting of the floor in a state of shock.

The others came into the kitchen to see what was going on. They dodged past Robert and went to stand by Sarah, who was folding her wings in.

"Who are you?" Robert asked Danny, not even noticing the others. Danny didn't say anything. "Answer me!" Robert yelled angrily at Danny, unable to recognize him. "You're one of those men who kidnapped my brother aren't you?!" Robert grabbed a carving knife out of the knife block sitting on the counter, not taking his eyes off Danny.

"You'll be sorry," Robert said as he advanced towards Danny with the carving knife. Danny was taken by surprise, he tried to say something but he couldn't get the words to come out.

"Stop!" Sarah said loudly as she run to Robert. She grabbed his arm and tried to pry the knife from his grip.

"Let go!" Robert said, "Can't you see that _monster_ standing there?!"

"He's not a monster," Sarah said as she pulled the knife out of Robert's grip, "It's Danny." Danny backed away from Robert, starting to change back. Robert watched with shock as Danny's fur disappeared under his skin and his face became more human.

"_What are you_?" Robert asked, taking a step back. "I'm calling the cops," he said, Robert turned and headed towards the kitchen phone, but Vince stepped in his way.

"Move," Robert said, he tried to push Vince out of the way. Vince folded his arm across his chest and didn't move an inch. Even though Robert was a couple years old, Vince was at least five inches taller, and a lot stronger.

Robert dodged around Vince, only to be stopped by June, who was smaller but just as intimidating. "You can't call the police," she said in an unnervingly serious voice. Robert tried to step around her, but stepped back in front of him.

"What's wrong with you people?" Robert asked, "Why are you protecting that thing?"

"That _thing_ is our friend," June said, "and he has a name."

"I don't care what his name is," Robert said, "All I know is that he's dangerous."

"Robert," Mrs. Perez said, finally getting over her shock, "you're not calling the police." Robert turned to see her sitting back down in her chair by Danny.

"Mom," Robert said, "He's just like those people who took Joseph; he's probably one of them!"

"Robert," Mrs. Perez said again, "calm down. Now have a seat, we need to talk." Robert walked slowly to the kitchen table, keeping his eyes on Danny. "Sarah dear, could you re-explain to situation to Robert." Sarah nodded; she sat down at the kitchen table and told a shorter version of the story. While she talked, the others sat down on the tiled kitchen floor.

"And that's what happened," Sarah said as she finished. Robert was staring at her with a blank look.

"That's crazy," he said after a few seconds.

"You don't believe me?" Sarah asked.

"No, I believe you, I just think it's crazy that someone would do something like that," Robert explained. "I'm sorry that I kinda' flipped out on you," he added, "I guess I'm a little overprotective."

"It's okay," Sarah said, "I think it's a family trait." She looked over at Danny who just grinned.

"So you guys just live on your own?" Robert asked. Sarah nodded.

"Well you're welcome to stay here," Mrs. Perez said.

"What do you do if you get hurt?" Robert asked.

"We just have to tough it out," Sarah said, "we heal really fast anyway." Then she remembered something. "Oh yeah! Vince, did you ever get your wing taken care of?"

"Oh, no, I forgot," Vince said.

"How do you forget being _shot_?!" Sarah asked incredulously. She stood up and walked over to where Vince was sitting on the floor.

"I don't know," Vince said, "I guess I just got distracted."

"What happened?" Mrs. Perez asked, she too got up and walked over to Vince.

Vince stood up, "I got shot in the wing," he said. Mrs. Perez's mouth dropped.

"Oh my! Are you okay? Should we take you to the hospital?" she asked in a panic.

"No! No hospital," Vince said, shaking his head, "it's not a big deal, we can take care of it here."

"Here, unfold your wing so we can see how bad it is," Sarah said, much more calm than Mrs. Perez. Vince unfolded his injured wing slowly, wincing as the movement re-open the already scabbed over wound. Sarah held Vince's wing in front of her as she looked over the bleeding bullet wound.

Mrs. Perez clenched her hands at the sight of blood. She wanted to help, but she knew that Sarah probably had a lot more experience with this kind of stuff.

"Okay," Sarah said, "I think the bullet is still in there. But first, go take a shower and wash the wound off, you got sweat all in it. Plus you don't smell too fresh either." Vince smiled innocently.

"The bathroom is down that hallway," Mrs. Perez said as she pointed to a hallway leading out of the living room. Vince nodded and went to wash off.

Sarah looked around, "Where's Indy?" she asked.

***

Indy walked around, exploring the house. He stuck his head in a bedroom and saw a fluffy, long-haired, calico cat sitting on the bed. _"That must be Mia,"_ he though to himself. He groomed his fur quickly and strutted into the room. He leaped up on the bed, making Mia turn around and see him.

"_Well hello there,"_ Indy meowed.

"_Who are you?"_ Mia meowed back, twitching her tail.

"_The name's Indy," _Indy meowed.

"_Mia," _Mia meowed, introducing herself.

"_So, wanna' go for a stroll outside?"_ Indy meowed hopefully.

"_I'm not aloud outside the house," _Mia meowed.

"_Well then I should teach you how to break the rules,"_ Indy meowed.

"_No thank-you," _Mia meowed as she hopped down off the bed, _"I'm not interested in a mangy tom cat such as yourself."_ And with that, she strolled out of the room with her tail held high.

"_Mangy?!" _Indy meowed.

***

Indy walked into the kitchen and sat down on the floor next to the twins.

"What's up with _you_?" Danny asked.

"_Mia hates me. She called me mangy,"_ Indy said.

"Hm, bummer," Danny said flatly, not really caring for cat drama. Mrs. Perez gave him a funny look.

"Oh yeah," Danny said, "the cat talks."

"_Hello,"_ Indy said, looking up at Mrs. Perez and Robert.

"That's just weird," Robert said, looking down at Indy.

"Yeah, it is," Danny said, "Try _living_ with it." Indy shot him a dirty look.

"Oh! Robert, I forgot to tell you," Mrs. Perez said excitedly, "I think we found Joseph!"

**Author's note: Hope you liked it! **

**

* * *

****I'm planning out the third and last story of this series thingy, and I've got a few bits and pieces already written. This is one of those bits and peices:**

Danny stumbled out of the destroyed building. He collapsed onto the ground as soon as he felt grass under his feet. Danny screamed in pain as the ground touched his burned flesh. He lay there, letting the pain slowly shrink away. He wasn't sure if he would be able to get up again, but at least he was alive.

**This is going to take place near the end of the third story. I might publish a few more bits of it before the end of Flying Free. Well that's about everything, except....review!**


	36. Photographs

**Author's note: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, I had major writter's block! But now I finally got it done. Enjoy!**

The next few hours were spent looking at old photo albums. The gang was gathered around, laughing at what Danny was like when he was little.

"And here he is at the park," Mrs. Perez said, "He didn't along too well with the geese." The picture was of a three year old Danny being chased by a goose. Everyone started laughing, except for Danny of course.

"No wonder I never liked those things!" he said as he looked at the photo.

"And here he was on his little tricycle," Mrs. Perez said as she pointed to another picture.

"Aww, he was so cute," Stell said, pinching Danny's cheek. Danny swatted her hand away. Mrs. Perez smiled and turned the page. Her smile faded slowly as her eyes set on one photograph in particular. It was of Mrs. Perez, a much younger Robert, much _much_ younger Danny, and a man.

"Who's that guy?" Danny asked, looking at the picture. Mrs. Perez now had a sort of sad look on her face.

"That was your father," she said, still looking at the photo.

"Was?" Danny asked in confusion, "What happened to him?"

"He died of cancer when you were still a baby," Mrs. Perez told him, "I guess you wouldn't remember him, but he was a great man."

"I remember him a little," Robert said, "not much though." Danny was still looking at the picture. His mother had been right; he _did_ look a lot like his father.

"I'm sorry Danny," Sarah said, seeing how Danny had not yet responded.

"Yeah man, that's awful," Vince added. Danny looked up at them.

"It's okay," he said, "it's not like I remember him anyways." Danny had always hated when people felt sorry for him, no matter how bad something was. "He doesn't look Mexican," he noted, hoping to lighten the subject, "Is some other heritage."

"Oh, yes," Mrs. Perez said, "Your father was a mixture of things. He had some Scottish, some German, and I think even a little Native American."

"So I guess I'm kind of a mutt then," Danny said jokingly. Mrs. Perez smiled.

"Most Americans have mixed heritage," she said, "You don't come across an actually _American_ American very often."

***

Mrs. Perez was making dinner; spaghetti for nine. She had already run to the store to buy more noodles once, and was afraid that it still might be not enough.

"Don't worry," Sarah laughed, "it'll be plenty!" Mrs. Perez smiled.

"I guess I'm just an ol' worry wart," she said as she stirred the tomato sauce, "You know, this used to be one of Joseph's favorite meals."

"Please Mrs. Perez," Danny said from the kitchen table, "Call me Danny, that's the name I'm used to."

"I will when you call _me_ Mom," said Mrs. Perez, "you don't have to address me like I'm a school teacher."

"I know, it just feels... _weird_ calling someone Mom," Danny said. Sarah went over and sat at the table.

"You remember anything about living here yet?" she asked.

"Nope," Danny replied, "Nothin'. Not even the slightest Déjà Vu."

"Weird," Sarah said. Danny nodded.

"Dinner's about ready," Mrs. Perez said as she scooped a pile of noodles onto a plate, "Can you two go get everyone?" Sarah and Danny both got up to go track down the others.

"Hey Vince!" Sarah yelled through the bathroom door, "Get out here, dinner's ready!" The shower cut off and there was a loud thump from inside the bathroom. A few seconds later, the door opened and stream poured out.

"You _could_ have gotten dressed first," Sarah said flatly, Vince had only bothered to wrap a towel around himself. In response, Vince shook his wet hair, getting water all over the place.

"Ugh! Wha are you a dog?" Sarah protested, holing her hands up to keep from being hit in the face with water. Vince merely laughed as he walked past Sarah to go get dresses. Sarah rolled her eyes. "I think Danny is a bad influence on that boy," she muttered to herself.

**Author's note: Woot! I also have more awesome writting for you guys! I wrote a character profile for all the Flying Free series characters that have been mentioned so far. The profile is on my page, you should go check it out! It has some stuff in it that I may have forgotten or just didn't have enough room to write in the story, so go do that! **


	37. Never a Dull Moment

"Danny!" Stell yelled through the bathroom door, "Hurry up in there!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," Danny said from behind the door. A few seconds later he came out wearing pajama pants and an old t-shirt; both of which he had borrowed from Robert.

"The bathroom awaits your highness," he said, motioning to the bathroom in a dramatic fashion. Stell huffed and pushed past him. "Well then!" Danny said, pretending to be insulted. He walked into the living room and flopped down on the couch next to Sarah.

"What are you doing?" he asked her; Sarah was sitting on the couch, fully morphed, and was pulling a comb though the fur on her tail.

"Combing my tail," Sarah said as she picked a knot out of her fur.

"Why?" Danny asked with a laugh.

"Because it gets tangled," Sarah replied.

"Mine doesn't" Danny said as he morphed, he swished his tail in Sarah's face.

"That's because you have shorter fur than me," Sarah said as she swatted Danny's tail away.

"_One of the perks of having short fur," _Indy said as he came into the living room. He jumped up on the couch and sat down between Danny and Sarah.

"Hey, no cats on the furniture," Danny said, "Scram."

"_I'll leave when you do," _Indy said, giving Danny an annoyed look. Danny morphed back to normal.

"Ha!" he said triumphantly. Indy got up and crawled into Danny's lap. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Danny said, trying to push Indy off.

"_I'm not on the couch any more," _Indy said. Danny pushed him off onto the floor.

"You smell bad, cat," he said as he brushed the cat hair off of himself, "Go take a bath."

"_I __**do**__ take baths," _Indy said in annoyance.

"Bathing in your own spit doesn't count," Danny replied.

"You _do_ smell bad," Sarah agreed. Indy got up and left the room grumbling. "I'll get the twins to give him a bath later," Sarah said.

Danny laughed, "I'll make sure to take pictures!"

"You could _try_ being nicer to Indy you know," Sarah said as she continued to brush her tail out.

"I don't like cats," Danny stated bluntly.

"You _are_ a cat, stupid!" Sarah said with a laugh.

"No I'm not," Danny said, "There's a difference." Sarah couldn't help but laugh at Danny's denial.

"What's so funny?" Robert asked as he walked in.

"Danny says he doesn't like cats," Sarah said simply.

Robert sat done in the recliner next to the couch, "But you _are_ a cat."

"That's what _I_ said!" Sarah said, continuing her laughter.

Danny huffed and crossed his arms, not liking being the subject of laughter.

"Okay, okay, I'm done," Sarah said, her laughter coming to an end, "Oh stop pouting, it's not like you've never laughed at _my_ expense."

"_Your_ expense is funnier," Danny stated.

"Oh, is that right?" Sarah asked in a false tone of annoyance.

"Yup," Danny said, "which is why _you'll_ be sleeping in the doghouse tonight!"

"Excuse me?!" Sarah said, in a genuine tone of annoyance.

"Better go fetch a blanket, Fido!" Danny laughed as he jumped up off the couch.

"Yeah, you better run!" Sarah said, chasing after him. Danny ran out the backdoor and spread his coal black wings, taking off into the night air. He was still laughing. Sarah spread her own red-brown wings and took off after him, she couldn't help but laugh too.

***

About fifteen minutes later, the two returned. Sarah walked into the kitchen and filled a glass of water.

"Wow, that didn't take long," Robert said from the living room, "How far did you two fly?"

"I caught him halfway to Missouri," Sarah said as she walked into the living room.

"Missouri? You crossed the boarder in fifteen minutes?" Robert asked.

"Well half on that was flying back," Danny said.

"And about five minutes of _that_ was Danny getting his butt kicked," Sarah laughed. She folded in her wings and sat down on the couch.

A few minutes later, Dale wandered into the living room. "I'm bored," he declared.

"Bored? Tell you what, how 'bout you give Indy a bath. He's starting to smell bad."

"Okay!" Dale said, happy to have something to do. He ran to go find Dallas and Indy.

Danny laughed as he followed Dale, "I have _got_ to see this!"

***

"_Heeeelllppp!"_ Indy cried as he ran through the living room a moment later.

"Indy! Come back!" Dale yelled as he chased after him, Dallas at his heals.

"Where'd that cat go?!" Danny said as he chased after the twins and the fleeing feline. Sarah burst out laughing.

"Wow," Robert said simply, watching the chaos.

"There is _never_ a dull moment when we're around," Sarah said.

**Author's note: Ha! Poor Indy XD Anyways, I didn't know how to write this into the story, but the I planned the Perez's house to be somewhere around Morganfield, Kentucky. If you don't know where that is, go Google it, learning is good for ya'! Well, I'm in a freakishly good mood today, so I think I'm gonna go spread the joy around. by!**


	38. Late Night Talk

They had somehow found a place for everyone to sleep. The house had four bedrooms; two were actually used, one was a guest room, and one was used as a rec room. The rec room was being shared by Vince and the twins. It had a couch that made into a bed; Dale and Dallas were sharing it. Vince had decided to sleep in a bean bag chair.

June and Stell took the guest bedroom. The queen sized bed had more than enough room for both of them.

Sarah had volunteered to take the recliner chair in the living room. Danny was left with the living room couch.

It was about 11:30 at night, and Sarah was just starting to fall asleep.

"Hey Sarah," Danny said from where he was laying on the couch. Sarah mentally groaned and opened her eyes.

"What?" she asked.

"We're gonna' have to leave sooner or later, aren't we," it was more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah," Sarah said regretfully, "the Compound is after us. And if the guards find us here, it could put you're family in danger."

Danny nodded, "So how long are we gonna' stay?"

"I don't know. I guess we could all use a rest; maybe a week?" Sarah replied.

"Sounds fair. But how are we going to tell Mrs. Perez? I doubt she'll be happy about us leaving," Danny said, he sat up, propping himself up on his elbows.

"I guess we'll just have to tell her. We can come back when all of this is over," Sarah said, sitting up too. There was a short silence.

"But what if don't come back?" Danny asked. Sarah knew what he meant.

"That's the risk we take," she said. Danny laid back down and stared up at the ceiling. Sarah thought he was done talking, so she laid back down too, curling up in the reclined armchair.

"This sucks," Danny said quietly out of nowhere.

"I know," Sarah replied, "I'm sure the others won't be too happy about having to leave either."

"It's not just that," Danny said a little louder, "It's everything! Our whole life _sucks!_" Sarah stayed quiet, letting him vent. "Why are they doing this to us? What could they possibly gain? Why _us?_ What did we even do?!" Danny stopped when he realized he loud he was talking.

"We didn't do anything," Sarah said quietly, "But what if it wasn't us? It would just be someone else in our place." She could hear Danny turn over on the couch. He didn't say anything else for a while, so she figured he was asleep.

**Author's note: READ ME!!! Hoped you liked the chapter! Sorry it was so short, but I couldn't think of anything else to write. In other news! I added a new poll on my page. You can vote and tell me who your favorite character from my stories is. So go check it out! I command you! :D**


	39. Breakfast and Shopping

**Author's Note: Sorry for the late chapter. I had writter's block. Plus, my stomach is hurting, so I didn't really feel like writting too much. Anyways, on with the chapter.**

"I smell bacon!" Vince said as he walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning," Mrs. Perez greeted him, "There's orange juice of the table, just pull up a seat." Vince pulled up a chair and sat down next to Sarah and Danny who were already seated.

"Sleep good?" Sarah asked.

"Like a rock," Vince said as he poured himself a glass of orange juice.

"How many pancakes do you want?" Mrs. Perez asked him.

"I'll take seven," Vince answered.

"Seven? Are you sure?" Mrs. Perez asked, turning to give him a funny look.

"Yeah, you're right, let's go ahead and make it an even number. I'll take eight," he replied, taking a sip of orange juice.

"You kids sure do have a big appetite," Mrs. Perez noted and she flipped a couple on pancakes.

June came in not too long afterwards, followed by Stell. "Something smells good," Stell said and somehow found room to sit and the already crowded table.

"Some of us might have to eat at the dining room table," Mrs. Perez said with a smile.

Stell and June left to set the other table, leaving the three oldest to talk.

"So, what's the plan?" Vince asked, quiet enough so that Mrs. Perez couldn't hear.

"We decided to stay a week, but we have to get back the original plan sooner or later." Sarah replied, "If we don't, they'll just find us again."

"So who's gonna' tell Mrs. P?" Vince asked, glancing over at Mrs. Perez.

"She's _my_ mom, I'll tell her," Danny volunteered.

Soon afterwards, the twins walked into the kitchen, still in their borrowed sleep wear and bedraggled hair. They were closely followed by Robert, who was already dressed and ready for the day.

"Perfect timing," Mrs. Perez said as she set two plates down on the table; one was piled with bacon, the other had a mountain of pancakes on it.

"Pilling on the calories today, Mom?" Robert asked with slight amusement after seeing the mountain of breakfast foods.

"You have obviously never seen the way a mutant teenage boy eats," Sarah said as she picked from the already disappearing pile of pancakes.

"I think I'm seeing it now," Robert laughed, watching Danny and Vince stack bacon and pancakes on their plates.

"Slow down you two, it's not going to get up and walk away," Mrs. Perez said as she sat down.

"You never know," Vince replied, taking a bite of bacon.

***

After breakfast, Robert went off to high school while Mrs. Perez went to work, leaving the seven kids to figure out what to do for the rest of the day. Mrs. Perez had left Sarah a credit card to buy some new clothes with. They were in desperate need of sleepwear and new shoes.

"Okay, you guys know the drill," Sarah said as they flew towards town, "Stay low, keep cool, and act normal."

"What? You mean I don't act normal?" Danny asked, pretending to be offended, "I'm hurt that you would think that." Sarah shot him a look.

They landed in the back of a Wal-mart superstore and walked around from.

"How needs stores when you got Wal-mart," Vince commented as they walked inside. He was right; everything a mutant kid on the run could possibly need was inside.

"Okay, first on the list: shoes," Sarah said, using a mental shopping list. Buying shoes was always a challenge for them, mainly because thee shoes had to be able to accommodate claws.

"Yeah, these fit," Stell said, coming out of the changing room. Since they had to morph to make sure the shoes would fit right, they were using changing rooms. Of course, they were getting a few odd looks from other people for using them to try on _shoes_. The way Sarah figured, they'd be getting a lot more if they didn't.

"Great! So does everyone have shoes now?" Sarah got a round of 'Uh-huh's and 'yeah's. Next: Sleepwear.

"Danny, take the guys to the boys' section to find some pajamas," Sarah said, "I'll take the girls to the girls' section. And please, try to stay out off trouble."

"Yeah, yeah, I can stay outta' trouble," Danny said, waving Sarah's comment off. The two groups split up and went off in their own directions.

"Ooh! Look at theses!" Stell said, holding up a pair of silky pajamas with teddy bears on them.

"Cute," Sarah said, "You wanna' get them?" Stell nodded and put them in the shopping cart. June and Sarah had already picked something out, which meant they were done. "I wonder how the guys are doing."

***

"Dude, check it out," Vince said, showing Danny a pair of SpongeBob pajamas.

"There's no way I'm gonna' wear that," Danny replied. He was looking through a rack of flannel pants. "These are good," he said, picking out a pair of navy blue ones. Danny tossed them in the shopping cart along with everyone else's stuff. "Let's go find the others."


	40. The Talk

**Author's Note: Again, sorry for the late update. I've kinda' been out of my writing mojo lately. But anyways, here's the new chapter!**

Danny walked into his mother's bedroom and saw her reading a book in bed. He cleared his throat to get her attention. Mrs. Perez looked up.

"Hey Mrs. P," Danny said, walking over to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Hello Joseph," She answered, calling him by his old name on purpose since he still wouldn't call her 'Mom'.

Danny was silent for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to start this conversation. He had decided that after dinner would be the best time to tell Mrs. Perez that he and the others were planning on leaving soon.

"Is there something you would like to talk about?" Mrs. Perez asked, reading his expression.

"Um, yeah, actually, there is," Danny answered, looking up. "The others and I were thinking about leaving soon. Maybe in a week or so."

"What? Why? Is there something wrong?" Mrs. Perez got up and out of bed.

"No, no, everything's fine, it's just…there's something we have to do," Danny said, "See, before we came here, we were headed to Canada. We were hoping to find the Compound's headquarters and shut them down. If they don't, they could still find us here."

"But what if one of you gets hurt?" Mrs. Perez asked, walking over to stand in front of Danny, a worried look on her face, "You wouldn't even by able to go to a hospital."

"We've been hurt plenty of times," Danny said, "We'll just find a way to cope."

"What about food? And water?" Mrs. Perez continued.

"We'll manage. We've gotten this far," Danny said, he had already prepared for these questions, figuring that she was going to ask them.

"What about shelter? Clothes? Money?" Mrs. Perez rambled, determined to find something that Danny couldn't answer.

"Like I said, we'll manage," Danny answered simply. Mrs. Perez gave up and sat down beside him on the bed.

"Nothing I say can stop you kids, huh?" Mrs. Perez asked quietly. Danny shook his head. "And I'll just have to sit here, wondering if I'll ever see any of you again," she continued. Danny felt a small pang of guilt at that statement. "Are all of you going?" Mrs. Perez asked. Danny nodded.

"Well I guess I can't stop you then," she said. Danny felt bad; he knew how much she wanted them to stay.


	41. Goodbye

**Author's note: Okay, time for the mushy, teary, heart wrenching chapter where the lovable mutant children go bye-bye.**

The rest of the week went by all too fast. The next thing everyone knew, it was time to leave.

"Is that everything?" Sarah asked as she and Danny packed backpacks.

"Yeah," Danny said.

"Okay," Sarah said with a hint of regret, "Let's go." They had already said their goodbyes and so longs; it was time to hit the road.

Sarah stepped out the door and into the yard, trying not to look at Mrs. Perez's heart wrenching face. The others followed.

Danny stopped in the threshold of the door, "Hold up guys," he said. He turned and went back into the house.

Danny went back inside to tell his mother good-bye. When he walked into the house, he saw her sitting on the couch, looking at the picture that had been taken twelve years ago. He cleared his throat to get her attention.

"Well, we're getting ready to go," he said awkwardly, "I came back to say good-bye." Mrs. Perez looked up at him with sad eyes.

"Please don't go Joseph," she said just barely loud enough to hear. Danny walked over and sat down on the couch next to her.

"I wish I could stay, but…those guards, they'll find us. If they do, someone will get hurt," Danny said.

"But we can move. We can go into hiding. We can do anything. Please, stay with us," his mother said, determined to keep him with her.

Danny sighed and looked at the floor. He didn't like it, but he knew what he had to say. But first he had to find the right words.

"Look," he finally said, pointing to the three year old in the picture, "I know that this little kid was me, and I know that you probably still think of me as him. But that was twelve years ago, I've changed. I'm not that little kid anymore. I'm hardly even your son," Danny hated himself for saying it, but it had to be done. Mrs. Perez looked at him, a newfound fire in her eyes.

"I know you have changed, but that doesn't matter to me," she said louder, "I know that those people who took you changed you, but that doesn't mean that you're not my son. You'll_ always_ be my son! It doesn't matter if you're part fish, or cow, or whatever! You're still my little boy."

Danny looked at his mother and thought about her statement. He thought about how he could live a normal life if he stayed.

But then he thought about the others waiting for him outside. What would they do without him? The kids had gotten attached to him, and Sarah had been his bet friend his almost his entire life.

"I'm sorry," he said sadly, "but I can't stay. They need me. I don't belong here anymore, I belong with them."

His mother let out a small sigh as tears began to form in her eyes.

"You really have grown up haven't you?" she said, "I understand, it's a hard choice to make, but I guess you're right. I'm proud of you." And with that, she hugged her son good-bye. "Go on," she said, "best not keep them waiting. And remember to take care of yourself out there."

Danny nodded and stood up, he was about to walk out the door, but stopped.

"Good-bye Mom," he said, and then he slipped out the door. His mother watched him go.

"Good-bye Daniel," she said quietly after him.

Danny went to where his friends and Robby were standing. His brother patted him on the back, "So I guess it's good-bye then, huh?" he said to his young brother.

"Maybe not forever," Danny said back.

"Yeah…maybe," Robby said. Danny looked to his friends, his eyes meeting Sarah's. Her questioning look was answered when he nodded. She replied with a nod and spread her wings, the other mimicking her action. They took off, but stopped to hover about fifty feet up. Danny was still on the ground, taking one last look the house. But soon, he unfolded his wings and followed the others into the sky.

Back inside the house, it was almost as if nothing had happened at all. The wall clock's tick still filled the air, the cat still lay asleep in his bed, and refrigerator still hummed as it chilled the food inside, just as it had done for years. The only thing that one might find odd was the middle aged Hispanic women sitting on the couch, looking out the window with a tear streaked face. She was watching the departure of a group of flying children, but was watching one in particular. Three quiet, almost inaudible, words left her mouth, "That's my son."

**Author's note: I know, I'm a sucker for the clichés. **


	42. Author's Note

**Hey guy! Sorry for not updating in a while, but this is kinda' important. I'm going to take a break from writing for a little while. I'll try to be back before the end of March. Well, that's about it, see ya' later!**


	43. To Kill a Mockingbird and IMPORTANT NOTE

**Author's Note: this is a pretty short chapter, but it's been a while since I uploaded one, so I hope you like it :D Also, be sure to read the AN at the bottom.**

"Okay, okay, I'll give you four grey ones for three black ones."

"No way! These are worth at _least_ five grey ones," Danny insisted.

"Hmm…you drive a hard bargain. Deal," Vince handed over five grey rocks. Sarah rolled her eyes. The two had resorted to 'rock trading' for means of entertainment.

"How 'bout you two make yourselves useful and get some more firewood," she interrupted their trade, "The fire's lookin' low."

"Oh come on, we're doing business here," Vince grinned.

"Vince," Sarah warned.

"Okay, fine," he gave in and stood up, brushing the dirt off the seat of his jeans. He and Danny went off to search for wood.

"Hey, check this out," Danny said, coming up to a small, dead pine tree, "Bet we can kick it down; we won't have to get anymore wood for the rest of the night."

"Sounds good to me," Vince walked up to the small tree and tried to push it over. It bent, but it didn't break.

"Step aside junior," Danny laughed, "Leave the job for a pro." Vince raised an eyebrow and gave a slightly amused look. "Just move," Danny said, annoyed at Vince's obvious doubt.

Vince shrugged and stood aside. Danny walked back a little ways, then ran at the tree, landing a fly kick in the middle of the trunk. The tree cracked and fell over.

"See," Danny said victoriously, then something landed on his head with a '_splat_'. "Ew, what was that?" Danny felt his head, there was a slimy wet substance sticking in his hair.

Vince burst out laughing. Danny scowled and picked something crunchy out of his hair.

"Egg shell?" Just then the two boys heard a loud, angered chirp as a Mockingbird flew down at Danny's head.

"Ah!" Danny ducked and swatted at the bird, making Vince laugh even harder. "Go away, stupid bird!"

The Mockingbird took another dive at Danny's head. Danny ducked and ran back to the camp.

"Ah! Get it off me!" He yelled as the bird landed on his and started pecking at his head. He swatted the bird off.

There was a flash of golden brown as Indy leapt at the Mockingbird, pinning it down with his paws.

Vince came up from behind Danny, still laughing his heart out. The others couldn't help but join in; much to Danny's annoyance.

"You shoulda' seen how dumb you looked," Vince said through his laughter. Danny ignored him and sat down by the fire ring, stick picking egg shell out of his hair.

"Dumb bird," he muttered. Indy carried the now dead bird off, probably to eat it.

"Attack him with an army of guards and he's fine, throw him a songbird and he'll run screaming," Sarah laughed.

**Author's Note: Okay, so I'm kinda' running low on inspiration right now, so I'm gonna' give you, my faithful readers, a choice. Please review and tell me whether I should continue writing the story, OR just spill all the big events coming up in this and the next story, and then stop. So, continue, or give away all the good parts and stop? Your choice :D please review!**


	44. The Big White Blob

**Author's note: Yup! Another chapter! Amazing ain't it.**

* * *

"Where should I look?"

"I don't know, try Google."

"Oh, right, I'll just type in 'Evil scientific compound headquarters'. Oh look, 64,300 results*."

Sarah rolled her eyes. The gang found a library and was now using one of their computers. "I don't think they're gonna' have a website, Danny."

"Hey, you never know," Vince leaned over her shoulder to look at the screen.

"Yeah, try ''," Stell laughed.

"Hey, that narrowed it down the 36 results," Danny said.

"Guys, come on now," Sarah interrupted, "Let's _try_ to get something accomplished here."

"Fine, I'll try something else," Danny said, "In the mean time, I think there some old news paper over there. They might have some info, you never know."

"Good idea. Come on Vince, help me look through these things," Sarah said, heading over to the newspaper archives.

After about an hour of looking through papers, the two decided to take a break.

"Find anything?" Vince asked.

"Yeah, a coupon for cat little, half off," Sarah tossed the newspaper she was holding on the ground, "What about you?"

"I found a pretty interesting article, check it out," he handed her the paper.

"Children stolen from hospitals across the nation," Sarah read aloud, "You think the Compound had something to do with this?"

"Well, it _would_ explain why they resorted to kidnapping," Vince said, "If they saw that the media was starting to catch on."

"This was in 1995*," Sarah did the math in her head, "We would've been about two back then, right?"

"I think so…" Vince thought about it.

"Hey guys," Danny called over to them, "I think you might wanna' see this."

"What is it?" Sarah asked as she came over to them.

"Okay, so, you know how when you look up 'Area 51' on Google maps, and there's just a big, white blob covering it*?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, I guess," Sarah said, trying to see where he was going with this.

"Well, June got the idea to find the Compound on here," Danny motioned to the Google Maps page, "We found the one in Oregon, and guess what," he pulled up a different page, "big, white blob." Sure enough, there was a big, white blob covering the area where the Compound should have been.

"We think they be blocking the satellite somehow," June explained.

"So all we see is this thing?" Sarah pointed to the blob.

"Yup," Danny pulled up another web page, "We already know the headquarters is somewhere in Canada, and it would have to be somewhere pretty remote. So we started looking at the Northern Territories, and guess what we found?"

"A big, white blob?" Sarah asked.

"A big, white blob," Danny confirmed.

"See how the woods are really thick in this area?" June pointed, "Then they just end at this blob thing."

"Wow, that was an awesome idea," Sarah smiled, "I give it twenty points."

"Google works wonders," Danny grinned.

"We got the coordinates," June handed Sarah a sticky notes with some numbers written on it.

"So, all we have to do is go here?" Sarah looked at the paper, "who woulda' thought I'd be that easy. I guess we should get going; where are Dallas and Dale?"

"In the kids' section," June said. "Guys, come on!" she called, "We're leaving."

"Aw, man," Dallas groaned as they came over.

**

* * *

**

**Author's Notes:**

*1: These are the actual Google results! Go ahead, look it up. You know you want to :)

*2: I'm not sure if I did the math right, but oh well.

*3: Yeah, yeah, I know that the big, white blob near Area 51 on Google Maps is just a bunch of sand. You can see them all over Nevada when you look at it from the air. But still, it makes the story more interesting :)


	45. Old Friends

**Author's note: Okay, I know you guys must want to strangle me, but please understand! I can only write when the inspiration strikes, and recently, it hasn't stuck very often. Sorry for the long wait, I'll try to upload sooner :)**

"Hey Sarah, shouldn't we start heading north?" Danny asked as he drifted over to her. They were flying west from their last stop at an Idaho library.

"Oh, yeah," Sarah said, "I was thinking we find somewhere to rest up."

"Cool, like where?"

"Well, I was hoping we could pay some old friends a visit…"

***

"She's coming!" Jimmy shouted as he busted into the living room, "Every man for himself!" Ryan and Max exchanged fearful looks before jumping up and making a hasty exit.

"Hey guys!" Emily called, walking through the kitchen and into the living room, "Guys?" All three of her brothers seemed to have disappeared. "Max? Ryan? Jimmy? Come on guys, all I need is a licensed driver."

Emily had recently passed her driver's permit test, and after her first driving lesson, her brothers were a little…reluctant to take her out for another.

There was a sudden, "Oof, Hey!" as Jimmy was pushed out into the living room.

"Jimmy! You have your license, right?" Jimmy turned slowly to face his younger sister.

"Uhh…," he tried to think of an excuse to get him off the hook. Just then, the doorbell rang. "I'll get it!" Jimmy said quickly, dashing towards the front door. He stepped outside and closed the front door behind him, letting out a sigh of relief. He didn't even bother to see who had rung the doorbell.

Jimmy suddenly found himself face to dirty face with seven kids, two of whom he recognized. The others, three boys and two girls, were staring at him with unsure expressions.

"Sarah?" Jimmy asked with almost disbelief, "What're you doing here? Who're they? What happened? How'd you get away from those guard guys?" A stream of questions started pouring out of Jimmy's mouth.

"Whoa, take it easy, man. Don't hurt yourself," Danny laughed, seeing Jimmy's expression.

"I was wondering if we could crash here for a little while," Sarah said, "If it's not too much to ask. I would have called but there's a serious lack of phones in the woods."

"No problem, I'm sure Max wouldn't care," Jimmy opened the front door again to let them in.

"Hey Jimmy, who was at the door?" Emily peered around the corner, "Oh hey! You're alive! I mean, you're back!" She smiled and made her way towards the group as they came inside. "Who're they?" Emily motioned towards the five unknown kids.

"This is-" Sarah was cut off by the appearance of Max and Ryan.

"What's going on?" Ryan asked, "Hey Sarah! Long time, no see! Who're they?"

"Hey, glad to see you're okay," Max smiled at them, "After you lead those hairy guys away, we didn't know if we'd ever see you two again." Then he noticed the others, "Who're they?*"

"These are my friends," Sarah explained, "That's June, Vince, Stell, Dallas, and Dale." She pointed them out as she said their names, "We met them a while ago; their like us."

"Like you as in…" Jimmy started.

"They have wing and grow fur," Sarah finished for him.

Max nodded, "Interesting. Anyone want hot chocolate?" The gang gave various, eager responses. Max sure knew how to handle a bunch of hungry, tired, mutant kids.

* * *

*** Yes, that was done on purpose. I thought it'd be funny to have four characters asking the same question while at the same time, keeping it from being answered. Sorry, my strange sense of humor is acting up again :) **


End file.
